SSAA Sydney to Lord Howe Island Yacht Race
This race is organised by the Shorthanded Sailing Assoc of Australia (SSAA)
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Most recent good image
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Ocean Heights and Currents
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Comments made on 30 Sep re: the Sydney to Lord Howe yacht race
As can be seen from the satellite sea surface temperature images on the web page, the situation with the East
Australian Current, EAC, is evolving quite rapidly.
A satellite sea surface topography image (courtesy of Madeleine Cahill of CSIRO) shows a ridge in the sea surface
to reach to roughly 34 30’S. This type of image does smear over some of the features, but the overall message that
it delivers is pretty sound, although current speeds can be an underestimate. The image is formed from almost a
week of overpasses spaced at about 150 km.
The EAC runs southward along the western side of the ridge and then northward on the eastern side. Yachts may be
able to take advantage of the eastgoing part of meandering current. Of interest, an item floating in the EAC off
Smoky Cape now could finish up very near Lord Howe Island in (and I make a guess) about a week.
Current speeds: about 3 knots on the run south; 1-2 on the run east; 1 on the run north.
George Cresswell
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Images for the "State of Origin Challenge"
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Have a great race. Glenelg Smith Satellite Data Manager.
