Global Challenge
Week 35 - Crossing the Doldrums Again!

Before the fleet of twelve yachts left Cape Town for Boston on the fifth leg of the Global Challenge yacht race, Sir Chay Blyth described it as the 'gin and tonic leg'.

What could be finer? Sailing through trade winds all the way to the equator, a quick passage across the Doldrums, and then riding the winds to the south of the Azores High, to arrive in Boston by early June. Based on my experiences so far in the leg, I'll be inclined to ask the 'famous round the world yachtsman' to make his jokes a little more obvious in future.

At first sight, the leg should pose few problems. The southeast trades are guaranteed as the weather should transport ocean racers to the equator and the very doorstep of the Doldrums.

As was proved on the leg to Buenos Aires, the fluky winds of that region turn the sport into a lottery, but once across those few hundred miles, the northeasterly trades should carry the fleet on its way to the eastern seaboard of the US. It's a fine theory and does hold good in practise, but only to a degree.

In my last report, I gave an indication of just how variable the winds had proved to be on our departure from Cape Town. By the time our team closed the equator, three spinnakers (huge sails deployed at the bow of the yacht to catch as much wind as possible) had been very badly damaged by the strength of the wind as we headed towards to the down wind.

Stitching teams worked round the clock to repair the damage with a good deal of success. Over 50,000 stitches and hundreds of feet of tape have made good most of the carnage but we have had to impose 'speed limits' on these sails, which is well below their normal rating.

The southeasterly trades are a remarkably constant feature in their direction, if somewhat variable in their strength. 15-20 knots is the average for strength, but the odd 30 knots plus burst of wind can and did cause problems.

Lack of wind was always likely to be a greater concern in the belt between 3 and 7 degrees north, occupied at this time of year by the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone and the dreaded Doldrums. I must confess that we were lucky.

Numerical models, which had proved disappointing in their accuracy in the Southern Oceans, suggested that there would be wind and so it proved. We didn't stop once in the ITCZ but, as was the case on the southward crossing, the region just ahead caused far more problems with lack of wind.

Over the past few days, my team has been both a winner and loser in the wind lottery. The yacht 'parked' for six hours as it entered a windless zone and yet, hours later, we closed on the leaders by nearly 30 miles as the tables turned.

The GFS model indicates further variability to come, but it has shown an encouraging trend to stronger breezes, so perhaps I'll actually get to ask that question to Sir Chay in the end!