Learning to sail in Marblehead, Massachusetts, known for its light air, I
became quite adept at being able to make a boat accelerate and increase its
own apparent wind in 5 knots, or 7 knots or even 3 knots of wind. It was
not a frustration for me, it was an intereting challenge at which I could
succeed.
But 0 knots of wind, that was different.
I couldn't do anything with 0 knots of wind.
And that is what we've had this past night.
0 knots on the apparent wind speed, and the true wind speed. And 0.00 knots on the
boatspeed. Now THIS is frustrating. Earlier in the arternoon, I had a quite
nice soft sail for a bit in a kind northwesterly, yes, northwesterly breeze
in the easterly trades. This does not compute. How to get out of here?
As with each of my 8 previous times crossing the equator under sail (5
Atlantic, 2 Pacific, 1 South China Sea), the goal has always been to go due
true North or due true South when you got to the doldrums. Like crossing a
street, it's shorter if you go perpendicular. But now, in the past early
morning hours, an edge of a breeze has sprung up, and I am tacking north,
tacking on the shifts, just like a one-design race in Marblehead.
You can't just go straight across, even with an easterly wind expectation. It is very
bizarre, and the zeros on the instruments were very frustrating. A short
time ago, with a crystal clear patch of stars, I saw a light ahead, not
range lights of a ship, but a single light.
Think it might be Derek who has admirably hung in there with, I think, pilot and computer problems, and
come back strongly after being off the position list for a few sessions.
If it's him, Go Derek! Onward. Northeard. For both of us.