The Doldrums
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Tue 12 Feb 2008 19:06
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03:43.925N 80:38.787W
It's true. The Doldrums really do
exist. We are in them, and have been since yesterday (Monday 2/11)
evening. There is no wind, not even a scrap. The sky is extremely
hazy with devilish-looking clouds sprinkled here and there, which mute the
sunlight creating an almost sinister atmosphere. The air is heavy and
humid and hot. The shit bringle blue ocean is extremely flat and almost
glassy. Instead of sailing into the blue, we are motoring into the
gloom. And there is no wind.
For those of you that aren't familiar with the
Doldrums, it is an area just north and south of the equator where the northeast
trade winds meet the southeast trade winds and an area of fickle or no wind,
some squalls and general unpleasantness results. The official scientific
name for this area is the ITCZ (Inter Tropical Convergence Zone). Back in
the days of the early explorers, this would have been the place where ships
would drift for days without wind and the crew would either starve, come
down with scurvy or go insane. Fortunately, we have an engine,
enough food on board to last several months and things to do to keep
us busy so that insanity shouldn't be a problem.
We are motoring and the ride is very
smooth, although the engine noise is annoying and we are trying not to
think about the gallons of fuel we are chewing through. We are about
250 miles north of the equator and we expect our windless situation to continue
for at least another 50 or 60 miles or so (about 10 or more hours).
It's possible, however, that we will remain windless for quite a bit
longer. If so, I suspect we'll get a lot of fishing (Don has two lines
trailing off the back of the boat right now), baking (there are four mushy
bananas begging to be turned into banana bread on the kitchen
counter), reading and emails done while we motor.
If not anything else, the smooth ride makes for
good sleeping conditions. We employ a three hours on
/ three hours off watch system. During the night, this means one
person sleeps for three hours while the other is
on watch. After three hours are up, we switch.
We continue in this fashion throughout the twelve hours of darkness each
night. In a nutshell, unless we take naps during the day, we each get two
three-hour blocks of sleep per night. When the sea is rough, trying
to get to sleep within the allotted timeframe can be tough. When motoring,
however, it's very easy to actually sleep for the full three hours. As a
result, we are feeling pretty peppy today. Or as the English would
say, quite peppy indeed.
More tomorrow -
Anne
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