Saturday 11th Feb:  The Inter Tropical Convergence Zone 04 19.1N 82 19.2W - Two days out from Panama.  

Today’s blog David

Well…………!

We had a good start.  We were no way near the start line at the gun – probably 90 seconds late  and behind half the fleet. But by “good”, I mean we didn’t hit anyone or break anything as we flew the Frog over the line!

Not everyone chose to use their spinnaker, so that did give us an advantage and with some clever tactical sailing (no, really!)  we found ourselves to the windward of the fleet in clean air.  We raced off and within 20 minutes found ourselves in the unaccustomed position of leading the fleet.  

Now, remember, this Is not a race! So being in front shouldn’t have mattered – except we weren’t going to let anyone past without a fight! Sadly, though, our Asymmetric sail – the Frog – is not a full spinnaker and so doesn’t drive the boat as well as  might a sail some 50% larger. So it was not a surprise that after a few hours, Gunvor (a yacht legend says carries seven spinnakers!!!) eventually got into clear air running to leeward of 12 Moons and pulled ahead.  We did keep in contact with her though, gybing about a mile under her stern just around dusk but then lost her to the darkness.

There are quite a lot of tactics involved on this leg. Sailing  through the Doldrums (the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone) the weather will be fluky and unpredictable and so it was a wry smile that greeted the news on  Friday’s radio net that Gunvor had run into a hole in the wind and had had to motor!  (Motoring is allowed – but penalised on handicap).

We sailed 201 miles in the first 24 hours – and because we had a favourable current too, we actually covered 224 miles as the crow flies from Isla Contadora – broadly in the right direction! – and we continued to race along at 7-10 knots for most of Friday. However, It has always been clear from the weather forecast that we would encounter patches of no wind – the first of these was last night.

Dawn broke on cue – a mirror smooth sea, disturbed by our wake and a sky portending gloom:

It was quite pretty – see the reflection of the clouds on the sea below:

But the weather ahead does not look good:

What are the Doldrums (the ITCZ)?  Well, there are two trade wind systems in the Pacific:

1                     A Northerly breeze across the Panama Isthmus generated between low pressure system over Columbia and a ridge of high pressure in the Caribbean (this is the wind we sailed on from Panama) and

2                     A South or South east breeze around the high pressure system which is usually centred in the South Pacific.

These two systems or 15-25kt winds essentially blow into each other (converge) at the Doldrums (ITCZ). The winds meet, cancel each other out  and then push warm moist air upwards into the atmosphere where it cools, forms clouds then rain and often electrical storms.  There is rarely much, if any wind as you can see from the photographs.

We are fortunate to have an engine. Consider sailing ships of yore – without engines – which would have slatted around in those conditions - some times for weeks – ( as we did last night!)  waiting for a breeze to carry them north or south. (The “Horse Latitudes” of the South Atlantic (near Brazil) are so named because it was at those latitudes that ships languished and ran out of food for their horses – so they threw the horses overboard and kept the food for the men).  

This morning’s forecast predicts that these conditions will last for 2-3 days.   Our choice then is to sit it out here for a few days in the uncertainty that the forecast is accurate, or to take the penalty and motor toward Galapagos in search of wind. Indeed, we could motor the whole of the remaining  500 miles to Galapagos in less than three days ….consuming about 450 litres of diesel (about US$500) but at least  comforted by  the knowledge that there should be fuel available in Galapagos.  

What would you do?

PS: Having been running due south all day, we  gybed before dusk  in an attempt to find the best wind. We carried the Frog as the wind died but – by 22.00 – we had only about 4 knots of wind – and that wind was from the wrong direction.  We took the kite down on the 23.00 watch change and turned on the iron topsail at 23.35 under which we have progressed all night.