Comments from George Cresswell
My apologies for being tardy with this report. I only found out today that the race starts in a day or two.
Please have a look at our web pages for past races to pick up some more information on the East Australian Current.
For this year the best image to discuss is the cloud-free one for 17 March 2002 1327Z-1646Z.
Assuming that you are staying on the continental shelf, then the currents will be relatively weak until you reach the temperature front streaming out from Sugarloaf Point. (To me, there appears to be an unusually small, but possibly strong, warm anticlockwise eddy centred near 32 50 S, 153 E). The southward current along the front may reach a couple of knots, even close in to Sugarloaf Point.
Northward from Cape Hawke to Hat Head the currents on the shelf in the cool water are likely to be weak. You will probably encounter unfavourable currents of a couple of knots in the Hat Head/Smoky Cape vicinity.
There is a weak front coming out from the coast near Coffs Harbour and extending to Smoky Cape. The currents on the eastern side will be more unfavourable than on the western side.
Moving northward, I'd expect weak to moderate southward currents (say about a knot) on the shelf to about Yamba.
The clockwise meander off Evans Head may drive a weak northward flow on the shelf.
Things will get bad from Cape Byron to Cape Moreton, with southward currents of a couple of knots extending in pretty close to the coast.
From there on you'll be on a wide continental shelf where the effects of the EAC will be minor.
I went to a surf carnival at Mooloolaba in 1959. I guess the place has changed a bit.
