Skyelark of London - Its Calm, too calm.

Being part of a rally means a fixed departure date, and for many things this can be a good thing - it keeps you to a schedule, limits the temptation to stay just one more night, or wait for something non essential to be fixed - however it can mean leaving in less than ideal conditions - in this case into a huge wind hole in the Pacific! The Doldrums is the name for the area of light or non-existent winds that occur near the equator, that were a major obstacle for sailing ships of old, which could spend weeks wallowing, in hot and humid conditions trying to beat the unfavourable currents and get through to the trade winds on the other side - back then they launched the Gigs and towed the ships along by oar and the crew reportedly went Mad!

Right now the Doldrums are unseasonably large and annoyingly in our path! Luckily for us we have Bertie the Beta, our mechanical assistant, so the big decision and the reason for the divided fleet, is how and where to use the fuel. None of us have the range to make it the 3500 miles to our destination which is not unusual for an ocean crossing, with the typical range being between 500 and 1500 miles (4-10 days) usually determined by the boat size. Everyone is crunching numbers, calculating boat speed vs fuel use to determine maximum range.

We know there is wind to the south where the SE trades are, but we also expect a large area of calm near the Marquesas so it's a gamble of how to use the fuel to the best advantage. Go south and you go further, with every precious hour of motoring only getting you a mile or so closer to the destination, or go more direct and risk not finding the wind for longer and then reduce your ability to get through the calms ahead. Or just drift and wait for the wind to come to you- we all have enough food and water and gin to keep us alive, and books, TV and great company to keep us sane, but at stake is perhaps a week in the Marquesas - and of course defending our class win .....