Today, we moved a little faster, averaging just over 1 knot for the day! We covered a grand total of 37 nautical miles in this 24 hour period!
Light air sails carried us through the Doldrums, as there is no option for us to motor through these waters. The clear skies and calm waters let our last functioning solar panels keep everything charged up and running.
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.
We are making our way North East, but at a very slow pace.
Yes, we are in the 1020 line, yes we are heading in the same direction as the wind on the charts, yes there is supposed to be 20 knots of wind.
Our friends on shore see that we are not moving and message us to check and see if everything is ok. Why else would we be moving at less than 2 knots in 20 knots of following wind? Well, the answer is simple, there was no wind!
We are heading North and trying to make our way through the doldrums without the aid of the Gulf Stream to carry us through these windless days.
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.
