'Snailing' across the Atlantic
NORDLYS
David and Annette Ridout
Fri 14 Mar 2008 11:00
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The Doldrums
4:56S 25:33W
14th March 2008
Much has been written about the problem of crossing
the doldrums, 'painted ships upon painted oceans' and such
like. Well it is true, it is b**** awful. Starting from Ascension
one is not far from the belt of very little wind that girdles the earth either
north, south or on the equator according to the season. However the
forecast showed some wind and our village of friendly boats were all
optimistic. The first 24 hours were great, 157 miles of excellent sailng,
then it changed. The 1815hrs chit chat on the radio tells the same story
from the other boats. '8 knots from astern', 'making 3 knots and
cabin very hot', 'slatting sails driving us crazy'. This is the story
of our passage so far. We have logged 637 miles and had forty miles of
current in five days. Bear in mind that our average for the Indian Ocean
was 170 miles per day and for the Pacific 155. The slow speed in itself is
not the moral snapper, it is a mixture of heat, constantly changing wind speed
and direction, that is if there is any wind at all, and the dreadful slatting
and banging of our expensive sails. For once it is irritating to have the
wind aft of the beam as the boat speed kills the apparent
wind.
However enough grumbling, we knew that this was a
possibility but having had two friends do this passage with no lack of wind we
were hopeful. As it stands at the moment we are planning on keeping going,
in fact the first signs of the wind going permanently into the east rather than
south east we will dive north, cross the ITCZ with its squalls, thunder and rain
but which at the moment does not appear to be too vicious, and hope to find some
north east wind north of the equator. If this does not happen and we have
to motor to get anywhere then we will call in at the Brazilian Island of
Fernando de Naronha to get diesel. This in itself is, we are told, a
good stop. Lots of excellent snorkelling and diving however having made a
decision to not cruise Brazil this time we are keen to get on to Tobago and
Trinidad. We have a booking for one week in a marina in the
Chaguaramas, Trinidad, a date to be hauled in Grenada and a flight home on the
29th April. Meanwhile we snail not sail across the ocean at an
average of 3.5 knots, as long as the sails set, that is fine, no confused swells
which is helpful. I suggested to Annette that this was a good lesson in
character building patience, I will not tell you her answer. She
definitely prefers the scenery to have green in it not endless varieties of
blue.
This is our second 3000 mile passage and to be
realistic probably the last of this length we will ever do. The first one
was Galapagos to the Marquesas and for this we had unusually good winds and
achieved it in 16 1/2 days with five over 200 mile days. No one deserves
to be spoilt all the time so we accept our fate but please dear Neptune be a
little kind to us.
 We have had up to twelve brown noddies roosting on us.
They arrive
well after dark and make a great todo about settling.
Then about thirty minutes before
dawn a great deal of preening and pecking at each other takes
place. Just as it gets light
they peel off one by one. In this case this one stayed
this morning for half an hour after the others left.
He in no way looked ill or tired. Perhaps he was just
enjoying the magnificent sunrise. Our wind generator did
not survive the 'Durban incident' and knowing that there would
not be strong winds and those that there were
would be from aft we decided to wait until Trinidad to replace
it. Thus the empty mount on the right of the picture
as you look at it.
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