Hi everybody, bit overdue, however way to much hospitality, party... party... kampai... more kampai....

Wow, what a wonderful awesome experience, it is hard to know where to start, the finish of the race...

We should say, the last few days were very frustrating, wind then no wind, little wind, becalmed etc etc while wind did 360 degrees. At the same time dodging ships, ships and more ships... I didn't know there were that many ships in the world - they are all going or coming from Osaka or travelling past Osaka!!!

We were approaching the coast 80 nautical miles out with still no land sighting, very frustrating!

The wind conditions however when we finally entered Ki Sidu, which is on the coast and entry before Osaka bay, was a beautiful day, flat water, 10 knots, downwind, sunny, it was awesome and we were planning our arrival - all good, gybing boat, sunset amongst the islands, dodging ships, ships, and more ships...

After sunset, we rounded the island at the entrance to Osaka bay, 29 miles to go, 15 knots, breeze all good, arrival in 4 hrs, no worries, more ship dodging, radioed in 5 minutes later and the breeze disappeared, ok, incoming current, sat looking at the Osaka airport for many hours in ocean wet weather gear and balaclava - shit it was cold - weren't we sun-baking yesterday?

The tide then turned, no wind, going backwards oh shivers - yes now BULK frustrated AND YES MORE SHIPS and more ships..... Was going to be long night and could be long day so close, yet so far!

Sunrise, at this point we were thinking... probably no wind until the afternoon, however a gentle breeze gradually filled on the nose of the course and we fought current and tacked our way up the bay very very slowly ....

Finally finishing at 9.00am in a totally dissapearing breeze, we crossed the finish line with no wind, tide against us and we just drifted accross, we were very lucky, there would have been no wind for at LEAST another 3 hours...

We had escort boats, spectator boats and it was amazing.

When we arrived, we had to do customs, NO COMMENT, and immigration, then we had a welcome ceremony which was fantastic! Then (as we were clearly not finished) we had a party thrown for us and for all competitors to show us Osaka hospitality which was amazing....

The hospitality has been truly incredible, it makes finishing the race so much more special.

It has been an amazing journey and one i will never forget, one i will reflect on again in a few weeks when all settles down!

Any way, in the meantime, we have another party to go to so Kampai for now....

Phil and Pee wee.

"The Odd Couple"

The End...

What an amazing finish!!! We were able to go out on a Japanese owner`s yacht to watch Dekadence cross the finish line. It was a real case of `against all odds`... There was exactly zero pressure reading on the dial and a large tidal influence against them as they literally drifted across the finish line before there was a total glassout for the next three hours!

Immediately on arrival, the boys were taken to the official presentation before clearing customs and quarantine... I will leave the guys to fill you in on that bit........ something to do with banned substances... ha ha ha

Both Phil & Peewee look great and are in fantastic spirits - just an amazing long awaited finish! This gym work really is over-rated... Just bugger off in your yacht for five weeks !!! ha ha

It has been an amazing day with unreal hospitality and beautiful weather to boot. Phil will update the site tomorrow and we will post the finishing photos once we get a quite moment. For those who are familiar with the end of Hobart..... it goes something like that......

.......... Squirrel

The Last 30 Minutes...

Well, it has been a long night..... we are now sitting at the Hokko Yacht Club in Osaka waiting for the yacht to come sailing around the corner - now only approx. 30 minutes away!!!

The breeze dropped out around 10pm last night and stayed dropped for the majority of the evening, picking up around 5:30am this morning.

When I last spoke to Phil, he was once again commenting on the amount of money he had spent to sail like a snail... but both were in great spirits as the finish is approaching...

It is a beautiful day once again in Osaka, a very light - 5 knots or less breeze (on the nose) and flat calm.

Will post some photos and an update once the boys have finished.......

The Countdown is ON !!!

Have just spoken to the boys again - now 10:20pm - Osaka time - Sunday, 29th April 2007.

They are approximately 32 NM from the finish line, about to enter the motor exclusion zone (ie: massive shipping channel as you enter Osaka Bay)... and VERY EXCITED!

Very pumped, the boys have been using a myrid of sails in the past 5 hours..... Code zero, spinnaker, sails up and sails down... etc etc... Definately a fire under their bums...

The most up to date ETA is some time around 2:30am tomorrow morning, although as we poke our heads out the window of the hotel, the breeze has just started to die.... watch this space for further entertainment... ha ha ha

The drinks are flowing already from both halves.

Konichiwa from Osaka !!!

Sorry for the break in communications, we are all in Osaka now and had an adventure of our own in travelling here - have received an email from the boat (as below) and also spoke to the boys last night... how exciting !!

They sounded fantastic and are incredibly excited about arriving in Osaka now.

The mood was very black on the boat yesterday morning when they ran out of breeze and listened to a forecast stating more of the same, although, the wind has since picked up and there is currently a nice 10-15 knot breeze blowing up Osaka Bay... the sun is shining and the weather fantastic.

We are very excited and will be looking to get all the kids etc up and down to the yacht club for their pending arrival - probably closer to midnight tonight ..... Will keep an eye on the progress over the course of the day.

Until then.....

Squirrel

Email Received: Sun, 29th April 2007 @ 17:50

Hi all,

Couple of pics, Japanese sunrise - hopefully our last and our first...

Visitor on board - hope customs don't find out... He was exhausted but was pissed off with the lack of pool side service and eventually took off, he must have been lost..

We have had a frustrating few days with wind up to 20 then no wind and then lots of wind - has swung 360 degrees twice over the last few days and is in process of going again.

We are getting excited and with only 95 miles to go to the finish line we should finish late tonight or early Monday morning (most likely Monday morning as it is impossible to predict winds.

We are also dealing with the famous Koroshio current which we should break clear of in 4 or 5 hours (hopefully).

The other amazing element is the shipping, there is shit loads of it night and day both fishing and commercial we are yet to enter Osaka bay but incredibly scary at night with shipping movements, they have 3,500 accidents and 150 deaths a year with coastal accidents ....????

Any way better go will give you update as we get closer.

Phil and Pee wee

Still no closer to resolving who is Felix and who is Oscar.

Email Received: Thurs, 26th April 2007 @ 9:30am

Hi, just a quick email.

Getting close but frustrating with wind now on the nose - 500 miles to go and trying to beat the next big low coming through on Sunday - predicted 30-40 knots ... goody goody.

Next boats behind will do it very tough.

We know we are on the right track as all the Islands now have Japanese names i.e: ha ha shima, mei shima, oto shima, this shima must be like hyatt in Japan.. ha ha...

We have had a few awesome days and now back to reality with wind shifting through 270 degress in 24 hours, rain fronts, and light winds, just to make life difficult to the end.

On a quiet moment, we were planning our arrival, it is starting to get exciting.

We were wondering what might go wrong with customs... etc etc ... you know these foreign countries can be difficult.

The attached photos (to be loaded to images pages) depict what might happen....

1. Pee wee arrested again for smuggling those red nosed budgees (when will he learn)...

2. Phil arrested for illegal importation of toxic chemicals (fumes).

Anyway better go, will keep you abreast of the progress.

Regards,

Phil and Pee wee.

Communications Received: Thurs, 26th April 2007

Soooooooooooo close now....... Looking at the Chart Plotter, less than 500 nautical miles to the first entrance on land (then approx. another 50 NM from the finish line)... The Countdown is on....

It is not without some level of frustration and excitement all rolled into one !

They are currently sitting in approx. 10-12 knots of breeze - guess where from.... THE SNOZ ! You would think that now they are finally getting wind from an optimal direction for the yacht, that it would be good news, but unfortunately it is not all that simple... They have an awkward seaway to contend with - residual from the last lot of gales that blew through and not much breeze to push them through it...

The wind is once again expected to go through 270 degrees over the next 24 hours and there is a severe gale warning through for Sunday... Never a dull moment... :-)

Still, the pending finish will come quick enough I'm sure and they are working hard at getting there as fast as they possibly can.

They are preserving as much energy as possible on board now and have cut their charging hours down from 5 hours per day to 2 hours per day as they are a little concerned regarding the volume of fuel left for charging the batteries... A little bit of guesswork going on, but with a change to the routine, it should ensure that they have plenty to arrive into Osaka.

Communications Received: Tues, Wed, 24th-25th April 2007

A couple of Satellite phone calls with the boys. They are getting very excited about their pending arrival now... (as you can probably imagine) and with less than 600NM left to go, why wouldn't you...

They are both excited about the prospect of sailing into Osaka Bay now and the approach to Japan in general.

The last couple of days sailing have been great. They are still doing around 7 knots of boatspeed in little over 10 knots of wind, but it has given them some fantastic sailing.

At first, they were feeling it as they slipped into a very light patch on Tuesday and knew that the front-runners were getting moved along with a strong SW breeze, but over the course of the next 12 hours it built into a more stable and comfortable sailing breeze.

Phil's last instruction to me was to ensure that we were there with cold cans of "coke" on the dock... He said it wasn't the lack of rum aboard that was the issue.. ha ha ha

Email Received: Monday, 23rd April 2007 @ 10:10am

Had an awesome night and morning, pics on images pages of sunrise and wind change ... yahoo ... kite up - photo to prove it. Only second time in 30 days - glad I have a down-wind boat ha ha...

We have a 12-18 knot South Eastern breeze swinging to SW later today - will play chasing the breeze then it should settle in at SW to finish.

We are now 869 miles from the finish and planning how we are going to deal with the strong current near Japan - very famous koroshio (can't spell it and haven't time to look it up).

Another great 24 houts, at least 200NM which makes 6 days plus over 200nm each day now - we are doing our best.

Fleet is now spread over 1200 NM, wow that's a hell of a way to get your monies worth. We will finish approx. 2 days behind the leader at this stage so I don't think that's too bad when you compare boats. We are making it SAFELY and enjoying it, this weather is fantastic and a great way to spend the last few days, will get rougher closer to Japan, but hey, what the heck for 2 days ha ha ..

bye for now...

Phil and Pee wee

Email Received: Sunday, 22nd April 2007 @ 5:40pm

Some more pics for you (to be loaded to images):

Awesome sunset off Natahan Islands which is in the Mariana Islands, 1,200 miles from Osaka.

Second picture is what happened when I lost weight, my tits dropped ... how grose....

Believe it, I have lost a lot of weight, pitty I put so much on the weeks before I left.

Well, what's been hapening..... Lots really, but the conditions haven't been condusive to tapping on keyboards - have you ever tried to type long emails inside a washing machine???

We have full main up now for the first time since the doldrums in the Solomon Islands. The wind is abating and shifting 270 degrees over the next 24 hours - good - should be fun??? ....

We may not be able to match the water balasted or purpose built boats, but we have just clocked over 1000 nautical miles in 5 days and that is good going for a cruiser that doesn't reach, we are the doing best we can ..... as "Hicko" would say ..... "You can only f..k with the d..k you have ... ha ha ha

We have passed through the Carolinas and now Marianas - lots of islands out here, pitty we have to pass them, would love to stop, maybe next trip that's not bought so cheap on the internet.. ha ha.

Places of interest we have passed are Truk Lagoon, (now known as chuk) - famous dive spot with war relics such as vehicles, planes etc, you can sit in them in relatively shallow water.

We have passed Guam, the famous war spot which is still occupied by the USA.

We have recently passed Saipan, which is supposed to be awesome, but I will never know. Pee wee has been upsetting me by telling me all the places is will be stopping on the way back - sounds fantastic. I told him I couldn't come, had to get back for a dentist appointment.... ha ha.

It is 5.00pm on Sunday, had dinner of ham, potato, peas, beans and washed down with a shared ration can of Coca-Cola, Awesome evening, one of the best for some time.

It has been a quick trip from the Solomons, however very windy and a terrible seaway making it very un-pleasant at times and even windy-er at night, lots of squalls and storms which make nights even more unpleasant, however last night was a lot better and we are hopeful tonight will be great with an abating sea and wind.

As of now, we are 1,000nm from Osaka, going fast and down to the last leg. We are really looking forward to getting there now, count down of the last few days will be amazing.

We hope the weather is kind to us so we can enjoy the experience and we are especially hopeful that we approach Osaka and sail down Osaka Bay in daylight, fingers crossed...

Better go, contact again soon.

Phil and Pee wee (Felix and Oscar)

Communications: Fri 20th April & Sat 21st April 2007

Well, not a lot to report at the moment. It has been 15-20 knots, a beam reach and a bit of a slog the past few days with not much variation although when talking to Phil this morning, he confirmed that it was a sunny day today and the breeze was abating, forecasted to swing through 270 degrees over the next 24 hours and hopefully offer a little change to the routine.

Only approximately one week to go now and almost under 1,000 nautical miles...... wahooooo... (I don't think they are the only ones who are excited ha ha ha...)

The past two days fishing have been abysmal - in fact the fishing for the whole trip has been... You saw Phil's pathetic catch in the earlier days ha ha. Peewee has been grumbling as they have lost three lures in the past 48 hours - all bitten right through the wire traces...

The only consolation on the fishing front is that they didn't actually catch whatever it was that has bitten through the wire traces... They wouldn't have known what to do with it, guessing the size of the fish by what has happened to the wire... :-)

I did point out that they have just sailed through the deepest part of the ocean in the world and there are "big biteys" out there...

They did however confirm that they are still eating well, now through most of the fresh stuff, but making it up as they go along... An interesting combination I'm sure..

Now to the Northern part of the Marianas Islands and really stretching their legs across the latter part of the race it is a strange feeling to think that after all the preparation, a failed attempt the previous race and the buziness that surrounds the lead-up to such an event - it is nearly at its conclusion - A massive milestone!

Communications: Wed 18th & Thurs 19th April 2007

A tough couple of days, so close, yet so far...

The boys are well aboard Dekadence and are continuing to run a relatively conservative race, with their focus turning to finishing the adventure more so than pushing the yacht till it breaks.

As Phil quite matter of factly pointed out, "we have had three hours spinnaker work to date, the only upwind was in Port Phillip Bay and the first part of the Prom, the rest has been....... reaching... and this is NOT a reaching boat - arghhhhhhhhhhhh".

Although a little frustrated, they are preparing themselves now for the last part of their trip. After Guam there are still some interesting components to negotiate.

The weather systems flow from West to East and with some alarming velocity to them. They have the currents on the approach to Japan which sweep across the intended path, not dissimilar to the one which exists on the East Coast of Australia and not to forget the shipping movements - if they get the opportunity to approach Osaka at night, they will be forgiven for thinking it is Christmas with the volume of lights they will face.

At the time I talked to Phil this morning - approx. 9:30am, AEST, they were experiencing 17-23 knots and were, yes, you guessed it, on a beam reach doing approx. 8-9 knots of boat speed.

Phil confirmed that they were generally either on deck or in their bunk with not much happening in between other than what is required to run a boat on a daily basis.

They are hand steering most of the time at present to minimise the pressure on the auto pilot, as the seaway isn't particularly nice either.

Housekeeping update... they have a bilge pump managing the leak in the crash bulkhead which is sustaining without too many further issues. They will do some further work to this area over the course of the day to try and clean it up a little more.

All good on the whole though, and only around nine days to go approx. so the light at the end of the tunnel is almost starting to emerge now.... how exciting !!!

Email received & Sat Phone Call: 10:48am - Tuesday, 17th April 2007

A couple more pics to be loaded to the images:

1. Phil's Equator Crossing.

2. Message in a Bottle Ceremony.

And before you require it being confirmed - yes there is Bundy in the can !!!

There is a story behind the "Message in the Bottle". When I sailed to Japan (Squirrel) - I threw over four messages in bottles - one five miles South of the Equator, one five miles North of the Equator and two on the Equator - I got 2 replies - one ended up in Kiribati and the other in Kosrae... So we thought we would try our luck again !!

Apologies for the lack of email lately - we have been busy fixing the auto pilot - yes, it failed yesterday afternoon just after we had finished fixing the crash bulkhead all morning).....

We managed to get the B&G unit fixed again and working thank goodness and will work on the Ray Marine system today so that we are back up to full redundancy. Mutter Mutter... something about "loose wiring"...

Found ourselves a private little squall overnight with 30+ knots, so spent the rest of the night reefed down, but of course there was no wind and plenty of cloud for the remainder of the evening - unfortunately resulting in little progress in the last 24 hours.

We are once again making progress this morning to our destination as we are now 180 nm South East of Truk (Chuck). and paralleling the rhumb line with assisting current. Only 2,000 miles to go !!!

Sick of squalls night and day, however we have beautiful morning.

Hopefully we can finish the repairs easily and get on with the job of sailing the boat again....

Until we find some more time...

Phil & Peewee.

Sat Phone Call: Monday, 16th April 2007

All is still good aboard Dekadence when I spoke to Phil earlier today!!

The boys have been busy with this annoying leak in the crash bulk head, however seem to have it under control now so that it is not continuing to flow through to the yacht.

As Phil said, "It is somewhat annoying having to spend so much time on fixing this, as we would rather just be concentrating on sailing the yacht".

Having said that though, they are happy with their progress and feel that they got away with their light weather in the doldrums "very lightly" so to speak :-)

They are wrapped to be sailing along in good pressure most of the time and getting along at 8-9 knots of boatspeed is certainly comfortable!

Roll on Osaka !!!

Equator is Crossed !!!

Well, we were sitting around at SYC for a celebratory drink in the boys honour and were just saying - "they can't be far away from crossing the equator now ???" when RING, RING, RING...

Yep - they had crossed the Equator !!!

A chance for the boys to have a chat to a few friends and share in their celebrations in reaching yet another milestone.

We look forward to the "real goss" in the next day or so... :-)

Email received 9:06am - 15th April 2007

Hi all,

A couple more pics on the images library:

The one of the mast is the effect of the heat blistering all the varnish off the carbon - very bad on the mast and the spinnaker pole. Why they don't paint the carbon mast white is beyond me??? - it attracts the heat and we have plenty of heat ha ha...

Progress to date - we are now 45 miles from the equator -close to another of our milestones, we are positioned East of the fleet but we have done that to pick up the easterly breeze first which we should get in the next few hours - touch wood...

I am not sure whether it is such a good idea crossing the equator with a sick man like Pee wee, i believe it's a bit like a full moon to a wolf, but I will let you know the outcome.

We have had tropical down pours both night and day and lots of them, shit it rains - seems like inches every time, and not normal though we haven't had lots of wind with it. Then again its not so normal to have them night and day and continual with some lasting over an hour or two.

Wind is typically 3 to 10 knots and swinging heaps which makes it tough going. Last night we went through 360 degrees, twice ...

Daily it shifts 60 degress back and forth, very unstable and makes night sailing very tough when you don't know where the wind is coming from and with downpours and black clouds you don't know how much wind is in them.

You find yourself sitting with small jib and reef in for hours becuuse you are under the blackest cloud of all times and 5 knots of breeze, but it is the one you take for granted that will hit 50 knots...

More of the same for the next few days, I'm sure.

Gusto's crew hoped off in Honiara for personal reasons and Brian has continued on solo which is a big call, we all hope everything goes ok - he is a long way from anywhere now, in fact the competitors are the closest point of relief if something goes wrong.

On the boat front we haven't let people know our problems encountered, so I will give you a quick summary:

In the first week we had electrical issues, 3 of; Firstly, the engine woudn't start and after fault finding we found a loose terminal on the starter motor, tightened all, ok again phew. Bit further down the track we had charging issues, we couldn't charge our electronics bank - fault was caused by fixing other problem, end result, we had to by-pass the pathmaker and reset the system which was successful.

Further on down the track we had problems charging the house batteries, we had to then reset the electronic volt meters which we did and were successful in fixing the problem. Very time consuming and distracting, however all problems solved and no further issues since... touch wood....

The other ongoing issue is we have had lots of problems with from the start is water in the cabin and the horrible sluggish performance of the boat, like it was full of water.

We kept pumping out from all the cavities and it kept filling. We kept pulling the boat apart to drain and rectify. Every time we thought we had fixed it, more would appear!!!

We believed it was the fresh water bladders which were leaking into the bilge, so in the end, we ditched the bladder water which was a lot of water and very heavy, which was contributing to poor performance. This boat doesn't perform on reaching anyway, let alone with additional weight, so with the water gone and continuing the process of looking, we found water trapped in below the floor compartments which we coudn't get out, so we cut 3 inch holes in 3 spots and we believed we emptied another 500 kg of trapped water, not good - no wonder the boat was like sailing the Endeavour??? !!

With the water out and bladders empty, problem fixed ??? no..... more water finding its way into the cabin. Continue with bailing ... but now very salty oh oh !!

When the water was mixed with bladder water we were not able to pick it up...

We pulled the boat apart again, drilled more holes and bingo, we found our crash bulkhead was full of water, lots of water, more weight in bow - oh shit !!!

So, another marathon effort to get rid of that water. We think we have finally fixed all our water issues now - fingers crossed.

Phil & Pee Wee

Communications received - 14th April 2007

Email:

Loaded to the images pages are a couple more pics from the downpour today and yesterday showering and collecting water for our water pistols... ha ha.

Has been a bit bumpy today and we have been busy and preoccupied with water most of the day.

We are both fairly tired and are not particularly looking forward to the storms tonight.

Sat Phone:

When I spoke to Phil earlier in the day, he sounded fantastic. The boat is going well and they are both really great on board. They are looking forward to some strengthening wind once they get through the Doldrums and getting on with getting there. The challenge after this region of course being the currents on the approach to Japan.

I just reckon they are looking forward to the water running the opposite way down the sink and loo for a change of pace.....

Both Phil & Peewee are looking forward to their pending equator crossing which was only 118 NM away when we last talked..... (I think Peewee more than Phil for some reason) ha ha ha....

Those are definately the photos we all want to see !! :-)

We have had some very funny conversations over the past week, the latest being regarding the pending "Satellite Phone Bill"... the end result is that I will just pay it and it will disappear off the face of the earth so that Phil doesn't have to know what it cost.. Very funny !!

Email received: 10:25am - 13th April 2007

Dicky Dance Part ???

Couple of pics on images pages to be loaded - First is a Sunset with pending black bastards that we try and dodge which we have done successfully for last 2 nights thank goodness.

The other one is the ropes we have to deal with on a daily basis and Phil failing at the macramé class (couldn't cope)...

Well what have we been up to other than getting frustrated with wind (or lack or it) and we are not even in the doldrums ha ha.... just practicing...

We are now finally past New Ireland - thank goodness, but not as relieved as Corcorin - how frustrated would they be? Then to have Gusto come back from their in-shore experience.

Lucky we aren't a line honours boat and are just enjoying the scenery ha ha.

Saw an island in the distance today for first glimpse of land for some time - wow.

Not sure exactly, but I think we took nearly a week to travel the 550 nm from Louisiades to New Ireland ..... wrist slashing stuff.

On a positive note, we have had good breezes for the last 36 hours, approx. 4-9 knots - I have never paid so much money to go so slow ?? What The ?? !!!!.

We are now approaching Malendok Island, you know where that is don't you? ... Latitude 3 degrees 40 min, but what is VERY important is that we are only 230 nm from the equator.

In physical distance, we are just over half way after 20 days .... scary, however 2nd half will be lot quicker than past half.

We have been head butting 1.5 to 2 knots current for 85% of the time which has had a big impact on all the boats and with very light winds the progress is very small (I'm being very polite for kids reading this)...

We expect to be at the equator in 2-3 days max, then Japan is ONLY 2000 nm from there or 3.5 Sydney Hobart's back-to-back - a walk in the park and probably will be after what we have all been through.

Spirits are good on the boat and everything is working well, there is no doubt for us that we are going to get there and our goal of finishing in top 5 is also realistic, so for us all good.

Hope this gives you a bit of an update on our progress and you find pics and stories interesting - well, hopefully not boring!

Bye for now, Felix & Oscar (Phil and Pee wee)

Email received: 4:35pm - 11th April 2007

Hi Guys,

Some foody shots for you on the images pages (just in case you were wondering how we were getting on in that department)....

You wanted to know what life was like and forms of entertainment on board Dicky Dance, so I thought I would describe a typical day for you.

Wake up - which time??? - in 2 hour shifts, you are always waking up.

6.00 sun-up, Tai Chi on the foredeck to get into the mood for the day.

7.00 breakfast on the balcony - great un-interupted 360 degree views, service a bit slow though...

7.30 ablutions on poop deck... ha ha

8.00 in casino for roulette to determine wind direction and course for the day.

9.00 Macrame class on art of un-tangling ropes, and motor skills development.

9.30 Suntan lotion and slippery pole contest.

10.00 Deck qoites - hot bum moving around deck.

10.30 Bridge Tour - nav station work.

11.00 Free Time... ha ha

12.00 Buffet Lunch (left overs from fridge)...

1.00 Aerobics and step class, 50 times up and down companion way.

1.30 Deck walk and line dancing class, avoid all ropes on cockpit floor.

2.00 Finish off with sauna - just go below to your bunk for a nana nap - you need this to make it through the night activity program.

4.00 Dress for dinner - Formal = wet weathr gear, Semi-formal = light wet weather gear, Casual = shorts and tee shirt.

5.00 Dinner with Skipper and Co-skipper and usual boring conversation solving the problems of the world.

7.00 Cabaret Show in main Lounge area (cockpit) starts with light show (electrical storm)and finishes with rendition by John Farnham of "Rain drops keep falling on my head".

9.00 Aligator wrestling - putting reef or 2 in main sail.

10.00 Trivia with categories like where would I like to be if????

11.00 to 5.00 Light music with such favourites as "Big Red Boat Stay Afloat by The Wiggles, Theme song from the odd couple show, etc etc....

As you can see we are very busy, so no time for chit chat - must go and dress for dinner!

Phil and Peewee

Email received: 7:11am - 10th April 2007

We had an interesting night, not enough eyeball on the barometer and missed in the dark a heavy squall that lasted 5 hours with winds of 30 knots and swells to match with absolute total black-out!! as we were not prepared, it caused some grief, however we managed to tough it out with no boat damage, but feeling tired for it this morning.

Wishing for a peaceful day today !!!!!! 9 knots this morning.

Only 100 miles to the gap - which at this point in time is a major milestone as we then head for Japan, via the equator ha ha

Approx. 400 miles to the equator.

We will be glad to get away from this part of waterway. It has taken Cocorin nearly a week to get through and all the boats behind are getting through with pressure, this is somewhat frustrating considering how becalmed we have been.

Email received: 3:31pm - 9th April 2007 - Easter monday

Hi All,

Just another couple of pics. Almost in the Tropics now, getting prepared for another tropical downpour (shit it rains !!!) and sun - Christ its hot already.

Pee wee's aboriginal heritage helped create the shelter (refer to images to be loaded on images pages).

Bye for now - got to go - got spinnaker up - trying to catch that little bastard ahead!!!

Phil..

Email received: 12:36pm - 8th April 2007 - Easter Sunday

Happy Easter from Dekadence, even we celebrated Easter -refer to the photos when posted to the images section.

Easter Bunny dropped in to see us and helped by steering for a few hours - was great to see him.

We even went to church, (Pee wee had to have a shower first of course), do you like our ensuite? - what a great view! - you would have to pay a $100 dollars a night in Tahiti to have a view like that.

Pee wee says he has a shower on Easter Sunday every year...???

We have passed New Guinea, Louisiades and are heading North West to New England Passage which is gap between New Guinea and Solomons now only 300 nautical miles away in light and flukey conditions.

We are already experiencing Tropical conditions, for example, last night we had 25+ knot squalls, electrical storms - awesome light show - just wish we weren't so close!, glass-outs, becalmed for 6 hours and winds from 360 degrees ranging from 3-5 knots and not to forget rain showers - actually they shouldn't be called showers as they bucket inches of rain within half an hour with large drops....

Incredible - as long as you aren't on watch at the time... ha ha.

This is a taste of what is to come no doubt, every day is a different experience and quite an adventure, however it is warm at night and hot during the day and you can't have bare feet on deck any more, so no nude sailing for Pee wee either - thank goodness ha ha - I wouldn't be putting burn cream on him !!!!

It will be a big challenge getting through this passage over the next 3 days as the whole fleet will bunch up as they hit the wall the same as what has happened to Cocorin.

Today we used our Code Zero for the first time - awesome! It will be a big asset over the next week or so.

Currently, we are trucking down the rhumb line at 7 knots boat speed and considering the breeze, it is fantastic, we are looking forward to good progress today.

Till next time, Phil.

Hi all,

Happy Easter - what an awesome 24 hours!

To add to Phil's email, he forgot to mention that the only reef for 100 miles was within 20 miles of us when we glassed out.

We kept checking the chart as we drifted towards & away from this monster reef called Pocklington.

As if that wasn't enough, during the course of the afternoon, 20 miles east of Pocklington (as you can see the reef played a big part of our life for a lot of hours), the alarm went off to awaken me with Phil screeching "REEF REEF" - I thought he meant put in a reef?

But, after his blood pressure rose to boiling point, I realised he had crash tacked the boat to miss hitting the top of a sea mountain - thank Christ it wasn't at night!

After checking the chart it commented on "depth from 0 to 2000 ft - they weren't lying !!!

Other than that, after phil's blood pressure subsided - on night fall we were hit by the storm from hell - no wind and vertical rain by the bucket then glass-out and becalmed - never a dull moment, but what a great experience.

Talk again soon - baked beans and frankfurts on the table ....

Pee Wee

Sat Phone Call: 10:45am - 8th April 2007 - Easter Sunday

Although a little frustrated, when I spoke to the boat, they were once again moving along in the right direction.

Some very evident "circle work" had been taking place overnight with 5-6 hours of being completely becalmed complete with thunderstorms.

Phil reported that "Hullabaloo" could hear their stereo this morning, they were that close.

At the time the phone call was made, Dekadence was doing approx. 6-7 knots down the rhumb line with the Code Zero in full flight.

They also reported that they had been having a few issues with fresh water unloading into the bilge from the water bladders, but this had been sorted now and they are able to finish drying out the inside of the boat.

Phil reported that they are pleased to be out of the "mill pond" conditions that they experienced last night and trucking along again in some breeze - moving forwards !!!

Sat Phone Call: 11:00am - 7th April 2007

Another good report - all is good on the boat, not much to add.

The boys are looking forward to the prospect of catching Tamagomalu within the next 48 hours or so......

Email received: 6th April 2007 - Good Friday

Well can't believe its been nearly been 2 weeks - how time flies when you're having fun & believe me its been lots of fun.

The race is looking like a bit of a cat & mouse chase but i dont believe we've really hit our straps fully yet as we have stuck to the conservative strategy, although we did pull out a kite today - it was hardly clipped on when huey let one rip so we put it away again.

I'm sure there will be plenty of time when the breeze abaits.

Still cooking up a storm each day, definately not going hungry but we have both peeled off a bit of weight.

Crossed tacks a couple of days ago with hullaballoo - we called them on the VHF to have a chat & were invited over for brunch - Flos famous pumpkin scones were on the menu. Unfortunatly we couldn't go because the entry fee was a bottle of Jack D and being elite athletes we don't abibe in that kind of behaviour.

Soon to be loaded on the images file - an example of our method of dispute resolution aboard Dekadence - sure beats trying to poison each other.

pee wee

Sat call received: 11:00am Thurs, 5th April 2007

Heard from the boys - this time a direct hit with the satellite connection which was a hell of a lot easier than yesterdays conversation !!!

They are happy - have come out of the opposing current now and although there is no assist, thet are at least making true boatspeed once again.

Phil was getting very excited about the prospect of launching into their code zero!!! and the possibility of re-entering the boat race so to speak.

They think they are approximately three or so days from the New England Passage (a massive milestone in itself) so are pleased with the progress so far.

Email received: Thurs, 5th April 2007

Hi all,

Sorry for the delay, but we have had a bit on - then again we have had a bit on for 11 days now - no let up.

Thanks everybody for your emails, which have been great, however we dont have time to respond at this point as it is too rough.

We hope the web site is keeping you up to date with our travels.

Refer to pic on Web as to what we have been doing since our last email.

Phil & Peewee

Sat Phone Call received: 3:45pm - Wed, 4th April 2007

After approximately 4 hours on and off attempting to get a good satellite connection and then switching to a back-up phone, the call finally came through (or should I say calls) with a lot of sentences "Hello, Are You There?".....

Yep, connection not too good today... But nothing broken, just stuff that you can't control.

The news is - all is still good - they are basically tired of sailing in 25+ knots - had a bit of a gutsful of it really - but hanging in there as they are about to enter the lighter winds. Quite ironic really, cause they will probably be complaining soon enough about the lack of it ha ha...

They are experiencing a strange current at the moment that they can't put their finger on of approximately 2 knots against them. Phil just keep saying "this shouldn't be here"... so it is a little unexplained, but they are hoping to be out of it soon. As he said, "at least with us still doing approx. 8-10 knots a lot of the time, the current isn't the end of the world - we are still moving in the right direction".

All is still good aboard with plenty of humour (some of it toilet humour as you have already seen)... but no shortage of things to laugh about.

Hoping to get some further communication through in the next 24 hours via email, although I guess we will have to leave that one up to the gods so to speak!!!

Email received: 12:10pm - Tues, 3rd April 2007

Howdy

Being a plumber and a low budget version of Kenny, I thought I would send details of how you go to the toilet on a yacht - lots of people want to know of course, especially kids.

Following on from Pete's story on food this is a natural progression.

Step one is of course how you do One-zies (this is a family show afterall), refer to photo on images page - Pee wee brags because he says the bottle is too small - yeah right, tell him he's dreaming.

Step two is Two-zies, (also refer to photo), but please note the economy bucket (unfortunately) as Pee wee told you previously - pirates stole our premium bucket .... our delux version had a bidet included... ha ha (water sloshing yuk yuk).....

I know how much you wanted to know this stuff - but you get it anyway.

Bye for now until the next sick thing we can come up with.

Phil and Pee Wee

"Imagine how bored they are going to get in the Doldrums" (Sq)....

Phone call received: 10:30am - Tues, 3rd April 2007

Phil phoned to have his daily chat (doesn't sound like him at all does it???).

All still good - the weather hasn't relented much with 25-35knots all night including rain squalls. He said the most frustrating part is that the wind is actually varying between 15-35 knots so they are gearing up for the peak rather than the troughs as they continue their conservative approach. Of course this means in the lulls that they are well underdone.

When I spoke to the boat they had just had a visual with Hullabaloo and had been talking to them via the radio. They too confirmed that they are running a conservative programme too with the view of completing the race intact.

Otherwise, all good and both aboard are in great spirits. Dekadence is sailing well and they are both very happy and comfortable aboard.

Email received: 12:57pm - Mon, 2nd April 2007

From the desk of Pee wee:

Hi All!

Well day 8 or 9 - not sure lost count - too busy having a great time, that is posssible you know, after 6 days with the wind on the snotter and 20+ knots :-).

I must say, my current bed mate has this obsession with his toileting habits - the only thing he hasn't discussed in great detail is the consistency, but its early days yet and he hasn't been bored enough - sure that will change.

Oh yeah, we were raided by pirates on the night of 31 March - the bastards stole our hi-tech porta loo (commonly known as the shit bucket). I couldn't believe my eyes when at first light, (on April fools day) equipped with the sorbent, the no-expense spared porta loo had been pirated.

It even brought a tear to my eye as I had grown very fond of my new best friend - bloody pirates, hope they look after it - must report it to the police in case they catch the culprits.

On the brighter side, the food so far has been sensational, probably because I have been cooking, but I must say scrambled eggs are Phil's speciality. Must remember next time to monitor the quantities the girls volunteered to supply - we will have to stay out here 60 days just to get through it all.

Our eating starts at 6am with juice & fruit followed by cereal or eggs or grilled cheese & straz, followed by snacks for morning tea then hotdogs or similar for Lunch.

Choccy & drink for afternoon tea, but that's not all - cocktail hour isn't too bad either.

Dinner is casserole/spag bol or as a special treat we had oven baked garlic & oregano spuds, honey caramalised carrots & a piece of fillet steak that melted in our mouths - not bad for a couple of battlers from the building industry.

More choccy for supper yummo.

This game plan of concentrating on eating well and bugger the sailing seems to be working as we are not last, currently 3rd or 4th - shit, what happens if we decide to put some more sails up - scarey thought!

Hope everyone on land are ok.

Had better think of something for lunch - don't know where the time goes - will talk again.

Pee wee

Email received: 11:35am Mon, 2nd April 2007

Well were we ? ... That's right - Sydney - Yep lots more has happened. We are in and have been in the strongest South Easterly air stream I have ever seen. We have been in it for 3 days and it will last another 7 - absolutely incredible with 20 to 30 knots every day and gusting to 35 in squalls at night ... you're right, not a lot of fun at times.

We are going well - again being conservative within reason and it is dangerous at night, lots of opportunity for damage with rain and wind squalls often. Seaway is confused with large swells at times that catch you out in the dark.

Crews will be very tired by now, no let up for over 8 days with wind and swell... tough gig - cetainly wasn't in the brochure.

We are haeding North at good speed with over 400 miles done over last 24 hours - that's an average over 48 hrs of between 9 and 10 knots, which is amazing - the wind doesn't let up and is not going to until we get near Solomons in a few days time ... looking forward to a break from the wind. Fancy a sailor saying that?

We are now almost adjcent to Fraser Island so going North quickly. Would be quicker if it wasn't for this north-south current we have found 160 nm offshore and have been in - 1.5 knots against us for a day .. bugger.

Anyway have a look at web site for a few photos and the awesome fish i caught!

Till the next instalment.

Signing off from Phil and Wee wee (felix and oscar .... the odd couple - havent worked out who is who yet)?

Phone call 5:50pm - Sunday, 1st April 2007

Well, not much more to report - all is exceptionally good aboard the yacht. The boys reported that they have turned the corner so to speak and are just off the furtherest piece of land jutting out on the East Coast of Australia heading towards the Solomans.

They are in the South East Trades now with 20+ knots average from the SE and trucking along as fast as they can. Everything is working nicely - even got a couple of pics through from them from their jaunt through the paddock a few days ago (have a look at the images pages on this site - also a few from the start on 25 March).

Now that the photos and email seem to be sorted out, we look forward to a few more being sent through - we've worked out a deal, we swap photos - they send me photos of their trip - I send them photos of Christopher... :-) Seems fair enough!

No news is good news - hoping it will stay this way for a while as the weather forecast at least for the next three days is much the same - time to tick over a few miles.

Heard from the boat via Email: Sun, 1st April 2007 @ 9:13am

Short email to say all is well on board with, 15-20 South to South East - all good - 10 knots SOG.

They are aware the water ballasted boats are taking off, but nothing they can nor want to do about it - not interested in fighting a battle they are not going to win. I get the impression, this is on their mind a little !! ha ha

All is well on board and everything is working beautifully - touch wood!

Email received: Sat, 31st March 2007 @ 12:51pm

Adventures of Phil & Peewee - Part 2

Well where were we, yes rounding Prom, lots has happened since then ... had a bit on ...

Rounded first milesone, we then had to go north east to Gabo. First problem was, we wanted to go north a.s.a.p. as major front was coming through, best way to avoid it was going north ... so we believed...

2nd problem - the wind was on the nose - not favourable for going north. It is a keelboat - wind on nose remember.

3rd problem, and the major one, was dealing with east coast current which was flowing at 4 knots north to south -again not favouable going north.

Decision time - hmmmmmmmm.... We decided we wanted to go out east to get out of current and hopefully find and use back eddy flowing south to north, so we sailed on port tack and went east for couple of days.

Wind was 15 to 30 knots most of the time going hard on the breeze - lots of fun.... "not", but we were going east with front coming up behind.

This went on for a few days until Thursday night south of Sydney when rain squalls hit with winds up to 35 knots with rain - even less fun, however this was precursor to the front. We dropped the main and sailed with the small jib.

Front hit during night, winds peaked at 50 knots for a short time then reduced to 35 knots for some time with wind changing to SW, the only positive thing about the front.

Boat and crew handled it well, very conservative sailing -so no breakages.

Friday morning, start engines to charge batteries .. shit .. engine wouldn't start - this is major problem. Spent next 4 hours sorting out - was loose connection on starter motor, What The? ..........

Fixed and lived to fight another day - good sailing with south west winds but large confused sea.

Friday night - charge engines - no electronics engine battery charging .... ohh bugger - said more than that though. Electronics off, jib only, pottered through night - had enough by then !!!!!!

Saturday morning, fixed problem by by-passing and re-setting meters .. happens every day - yeahhhh right!!!

Saturday lunch time - underway full steam ahead - 9 knots boat speed heading north, some sunshine, shorts on for first time after 6 days in wet weather gear.

NOW ALL GOOD TILL NEXT INSTALMENT, STAY TUNED.....

By the way, for interest, our goal for trip are number one to make it and second to finish in top 5. We have looked at the boats with some being purpose built and/or water ballasted and we cannot compete with them as we are a conventional boat that does not reach well and we don't have water ballast (water ballast makes a huge difference -like having 10 people sitting on the rail permanently), but we can do well if we finish, so that is the number one goal and why we are sailing conservatively at this stage, and make no excuses for that...

We are still in the race and in first 5 boats so really all is good for us.

Till next time...

Phil and Peewee (the odd couple ha ha)

Fri, 30th March 2007 @ 4:32pm

Wow, what a day - via the Sat phone again tonight, caught up with all the action...

Last night saw a large seaway and a constant 35+ knots across the deck with the odd gust to around 50 knots. A huge night on the helm, although well approached as they strapped the main down and ran under headsail only for the duration of the front.

Phil and Peewee have been running hard all day again - big steering day !!

They have been experiencing 3-4 metre swells and have averaged out at around 9½ knots boat speed. They are trucking along alright and are very happy with the way in which the boat is handling the seaway and wind. "Fantastic".

When I spoke to them, they had just completed dropping the main and would continue again overnight under headsail only as their conservative approach was still being exercised. At this point, it doesn't seem to be affecting their overall standing as they are still in touch with the leaders and their boat and sails are in great shape.

Both on board are in great spirits and good shape physically (for those who might be wondering whether there is a second body on board) ha ha

Dekadence is now approximately 300 miles from Brisbane and as Phil said, he is looking forward to getting out of his thermals, wet weather gear and into a pair of shorts!!!

Apparently the Satellite Telephone and GPS units are having a lovers tiff and don't like each other very much, but this is being overcome by simply allowing them to take turns !! ha ha

Phil said they were feeling a little guilty for not finding the time to send some email through, although when faced with the decision to either muck around with a computer for an hour or sleep for an hour - guess which one prevails??? :-)

Thurs, 29th March 2007 @ 4:52pm

Yep, Sat phone call again... you guessed it !!

A bit of a tough day out on the water today - plenty of wind and waves to contend with as a frontal system went over, not to mention all the rain that came with it. When I spoke to Phil, they were yet to receive the next band of weather which was looming in the distance.

They are currently off Sydney. Looks like that dinner at Doyles could be on Lexy !!

Unfortunately a bit of downtime today too - due to the fact that all of a sudden they found themselves without an engine (kind of cruicial really)....

After a lot of examining, the issue was eventually resolved - problem - a wire had come off a solenoid (I'm sure they will fill us in a little later when they get the time as to exactly what happened).

End result was they lost approximately 3 hours today and are feeling somewhat buggered, albeit a little grumpy! I did point out however that at least they were not out of the race like Wasabi - that seemed to make them feel a little better ???

Looking at the weather map, seems as though there will be some South Westerly winds after this front passes through, so hopefully some running conditions and a little relief to get some serious miles under the belt....

Wed, 28th March 2007 @ 5:37pm

Phone call received, this time via Satellite Telephone as they are now out of range on CDMA for a consistent signal. It is interesting - with all this technology - you can test & test & test it as much as you like within the confines of land, but in reality, once out in the ocean you need to spend some serious downtime just waiting for the right satellite to come buzzing by to get a good connection ...

Dekadence was sitting NE from GABO Island, at position 37°36'S 150°56'E making tracks in a North Easterly direction, trying to get out of the Eastern Australian Current (EAC). I stopped short of asking them to keep an eye out for Nemo on their way through...

Peewee and Phil are doing well and sounding great. Still wingeing about the direction of the wind, but both are in good shape. Is now a good time to remind them to put "baby cream" on their bums to stop them going red and blotchy ??? :-)

Email Received from Dekadence: Wed, 28th March 2007 @ 8:14am

Summation of first 3 days - Docklands was fantastic - felt important for people who aren't ha ha

Start was amazing - gives a whole new meaning to start boat - even I heard the gun, it was a great spectacle, however it was tight start line with Station Pier!

Had a good trip down the bay with wind on the nose of course. Rather un-eventful but just glad to go and know we were not stopping .. hopefully....

Went out the heads at 5.30pm, turn left, guess what? Wind on nose ... suprise. Do you know why keelboat bows are pointy? ... that's to show you where the wind is coming from ha ha. On way to prom - leg no 1, wind 15 to 20 knots but increased to 25 knots that night.

Bang crash with waves but all ok - we are taking a very conservative approach for obvious reasons, don't care how many boats get past at this stage. Long way to go, must be there at finish to have any chance.

Our goal is to finish and if we achieve that we may do well.

There are some good boats out here and we should be in top 6 as many boats are water balasted which gives them a real advantage in strong winds.

First few days on the nose, Boat is permanently on a heel, we are permanently in wet weather gear and little food ... Gees last time I buy a Pacific cruise on e-bay ha ha

Rounded Prom at 7.30pm on Monday then across paddock with oil rigs, had to pass Seismic vessel towing 4 miles of cables behind - that was weird.

Oil rigs are always great to see.

Finished rounding Prom 8.00am Wed - on to next adventure, heading North - wind has gone to NW, yes you guessed it, wind on nose.....

Bye for now

Phil and Pee Wee

Tues, 27th March 2007 @ 7:15pm

Heard from the boys again - all even better than yesterday! They picked up a couple of places today and are placed well.

If you have been following the yacht tracker and were wondering what happened last night overnight, Phil confirmed that they are running a relatively conservative programme during the night at present. As he quite rightly pointed out, there are many yachts around them carrying water ballast against their more conventional setup!

When we spoke, they were approx. 70NM from GABO Island and still looking forward to the wind altering direction from the pointy end !! The boys and boat are physically in good shape as they have been using the auto pilot no worries and were certainly sounding a lot more "chipper" on the phone.

Phil said that he had even taken a few happy snaps of the oil rigs on the way through and will send through some pics when he gets the email sorted.

I pointed out that there was now another added pressure for the boys to arrive in Japan as Steph & Courts were busy pretending to pack their dolls' bags for their trip to Japan this afternoon.... hmmmm nothing like a couple of little voices on the end of the phone giving him bucketfuls huh! :-)

Don't worry, I have been very careful to make sure that they fully understanding the greater implications of yacht racing (if you know what I mean) ha ha...

Mon, 26th March 2007 @ 6:50pm

Received a phone call from Phil - typical, he was wingeing about the wind coming from the pointy end of the boat - gee, can't keep them happy huh !! ha ha.

Still getting approx. 20+ knots from the direction they are trying to get too, and will be like that for another day before some stronger winds come in to give them a bit of curry.

They have been hand steering since the start, opting for Plan B - to preserve the auto pilot in the rougher stuff and wait for the abateing wind to utilise it. Phil confirmed what we all know - it is a horrible seaway in that part of the world, but Dekadence is handling it well.

At the time of chatting, the boys were just off Skull Island in Wilsons Prom.

All is good aboard the yacht, and they sound fantastic.

To send email is still an issue, so we will wait until calmer seas and less wind to hear more about the day to day adventures aboard. Nice way for Phil to get out of having to complete his Business Plan anyway... I kid you not.

First Phone Call

I received a phone call from Phil at approx. 6:15pm last night (25 March). They were around 2 hours from going through the Port Phillip Bay Heads and in good shape. Dekadence was sailing well and all was good on board. Phil confirmed they had settled the boat down, were happy and feeling confident.

Phil said they were looking forward to getting around the Prom tomorrow and starting their journey up the East Coast. He said he would try to send email within the next two days once they had themselves a little more sorted.

All Good !!!

I will update the Photographs to the Web from yesterday when I get a chance later today and will post their email communication as soon as it comes to hand.

Melbourne to Osaka Start - 25 March 2007

After all the preparations for the race, work finalisation and organising all personal affairs prior to leaving on such a race, the boys were both really ready to push off and start this long awaited unfinished business.

They left to the sounds of their theme song "The Odd Couple" which was hilarious but also contains a large element of truth :-)

There were many people down to see them off including a large contingent of Peewee's family and friends. And of course not to forget Phil's mum, Elaine, who wouldn't have missed it for the world.

We chased them up the river in the powerboat to say our goodbyes and receive all last minute instructions on items to take care of on the home front while away. Phil in his usual manner, handing over the last draft of his Business Plan from boat to boat - the work never finished until well after the very last minute (ha ha)...

There was an amazing spectator fleet out for the race start - literally boats in all directions. We had a great crew aboard the Dekadence tender comprising Andy, Deb, Erin, Daelene, Lex, Tamara, myself and of course nine week old Christopher strapped into his car capsule and smiling at everyone in the boat :-)

The start was relatively conservative with one boat over and another making tracks to get back behind the line. Bearing in mind there is a 5% penalty if you are over the line, it doesn't make a lot of sense to push the envelope too far. Dekadence was well placed and crusied through with a small wrap on their headdy which was sorted out quickly and off they went.

The boys made good gains by staying inshore before their first tack out of St Kilda. A long board out and then one board back in to the turning mark off Sandringham Yacht Club. Dekadence was second around the mark. We waived our final goodbyes and off they sailed. The boat looked fantastic and the boys were smiling, completely in their element and ready to get out of Port Phillip Bay and on to the real stuff!!!

Squirrel