Doldrums: No wind today, no wind tomorrow, no wind anywhere.
In 24 hours, we sailed a grand total of 17.8 nautical miles. That translates into an average of 0.74 knots.
There is no wind out here, and then a squall will come up on you. This gives you a significant push (or so you think) until it passes and you realize that you have only sailed a few feet from where you once were.
We fly our light air sails and slowly make our way through this windless region of the Earth.
Our friends on land tell us that the weather systems around us have normalized!
With this glorious information, we await the 8pm transmission of Weather Faxes and anxiously download the information.
The 1020 line has moved back towards us, the weird gales are gone, and the Azores High seems to dominate the North Atlantic.
Looking at the wind/waves chart, you can really see how the weather patterns have normalized. There is a very nice and consistent flow of circulation in the North Atlantic. Winds are steady and seas are even. The weather is here! It is time to turn North and make our way to Westerlies!
Today is June 23, and we are still just off the Bahamas.
10 days! 10 DAYS! NOTHING! We have given up on Weather Fax and all weather forecasts, and are now simply slowly drifting along in the right direction.
We are slow, we are barely moving, but we have planned for this.
As slow as we were, today was the first time that we managed to make more than 80 nautical miles in a 24 hour period. This is nothing to brag about, but it is exciting when for the past week you have been averaging in the 50s.
Where are we trying to go? The Azores.
What cardinal direction are they? East
Let’s go East!
Very slowly, we continue our voyage easterly. We avoid heading North because those gales are still up there.
At this pace, we hope to make it to the Azores before the year ends, even though it’s only June 23.
For a change of pace, we managed to catch our first fish of the trip! This gave us some welcome variety into our diet as we now had fish for dinner!
No more Weather Fax! It keeps predicting wind and then not delivering. Friends on shore also keep telling us that tomorrow, there will be plenty of wind, but it never comes!
This is my first night of the crossing that when 8pm EST comes around, I don’t download the Weather Fax. It has become a joke on the boat: Whatever the Weather Fax calls for will be the only scenario that will not occur! If it calls for wind, prepare to be becalmed. If it calls for becalmed, prepare the storm sails!
Maddie and I decide to stop chasing the wind that is supposed to be somewhere out there and instead begin our VERY slow journey East.
