The newly renamed cruise ship Pacific Dawn led the Cabbage Tree Island race fleet out of Sydney Harbour at a very sedate pace this evening.

The first of the fleet of thirty yachts took nearly half an hour from their 8pm start to clear the Heads in a light ENE breeze that looked to be struggling to reach 5 knots.

By 10pm a string of port lights was spread up the northern beaches before being shrouded by the next band of rain moving along the coast.

It looks set to be a quiet and slow trip to Cabbage Tree Island and back with the ‘Seabreeze’ website suggesting the breeze will drop further in strength as it veers to the south overnight before slowly backing in to the east again during Saturday, but rarely forecast to exceed 8 knots for most of the day. – Crosbie Lorimer