2001 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race Information     Back to the main yacht race page http://www.marine.csiro.au/yacht_races/

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Sea Surface Temperature George Cresswell's comments

6 day smoothed

Ocean Height and Currents

Ocean Colour

Tasmanian Waters, 23 December

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Tasmanian Waters

It is still a long time before the Sydney to Hobart race gets under way. The pattern of the East Australian Current and its eddies will change.

The 19 December image is a spectacularly good one, as compared with some that we've had at this time over the years.

The image shows almost a textbook pattern with the warm EAC waters running in a meandering path from Sugarloaf Point to Bass Strait.

The meandering takes the current into and away from the continental shelf edge. If the race was on now, then yachts would expect good southward currents at and just beyond the shelf edge out from southern Sydney and from Bateman's Bay to the NSW/Vic border.

Between these places (and, in fact, probably at 36°30'S) it is very likely that the shelf edge currents could be northward. Yachts would have to head out to the warm water well out to sea in order to catch the current off, say, Jervis Bay (I'm reminded of "Indian-Pacific" in 1984)

By the way, it gave me some amusement today when one of the shrewder yachtsmen, who can interpret the images quite well, asked me not to put arrows and speeds onto the images because they help his opponents too much.

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With assistance from CSIRO's Remote Sensing Unit, based in Hobart, regular satellites images are being uploaded to this site until the conclusion of the race.

Further Information:
CSIRO Division of Marine Research
GPO Box 1538
HOBART TASMANIA AUSTRALIA
Phone (03) 6232 5222 International +61 3 6232 5222
Fax (03) 6232 5000 International +61 3 6232 5000