March 22 - Doldrums

Blog 3.22 Fri
STATUS REPORT:
3.7 deg. south; 95.8 deg. west, 72 hours at sea
372 mi. from Galapagos; 2,645 mi. from Nuku Hiva, Marquesas



We have been slowly learning, ever so slowly, why the doldrums have had such a hated reputation by sailors for almost a thousand years. The winds can be non-existent or so light you can't sail, the humidity is stifling, the rains can be long and heavy and progress is soooo slow. Last night we sailed between some big lightening storms but didn't get much rain. Seas were very lumpy and uncomfortable again. [Update at 1800: we have now been sailing in 10-12kt SSE winds all afternoon, the atmosphere has cleared considerably, the seas are smooth and we're hoping this is the trade winds and we'll sail in these conditions to the Marquesas. Our moods are lifted considerably. Yippee!!!!]

We have used our engine through the worst of it, for about 20 hours of the past 72. But our objective is to sail - not motor.
So we've been working quite hard at taking the greatest advantage of every wind we've had, and most of the wind we've had has been "noserlies" (thanks Jim Powell) from the SW, exactly where we've wanted to go. There have been many hours sailing close hauled on port tack which is the tack that takes us toward the Marquesas.

Most of the other Oysters in our fleet have used their engines extensively during the first three days to head directly into the wind and get south to the trade winds which blow consistently and predictably from the SE once you get south of about 5 to 7 degrees south latitude. We're only at 3.7 deg. S, so we have a ways to go. But we've made over 100 miles per day the first two days, and 135 noon to noon today. We've settled in to some steady 8-10kt winds today, but from the SSE, so the best heading we can make under close spinnaker is directly at the Marquesas instead of SSW to the trade winds. At least it's very pleasant sailing at 7kn over ground. Mike got an e-mail update from Oyster with everyone's position, so we found out we're the furthest boat north and probably in the back third of the pack. This is a handy email as we don't get Yellow Brick tracker that you can see on our blog site.

Interesting aside: no matter where you are in the world a minute of latitude is one nautical mile, and since there are 60 minutes in a degree, you travel 60 nautical miles every degree traveled. So sailing due south from our current 3.7 south latitude to our desired 5.7 south would be 2 degrees x 60 = 120 mi, or about 20 hours of sailing at a typical 6 knots. However this only works for degrees of longitude if you are at the equator. And we happen to be very close to the equator!! We're at 95.8 west longitude and Nuku Hive, Marquesas is at 140.2 west, so that's 44.4 degrees west, or about (44.4 x 60 =) 2,660.4 mi, since it's almost due west from here. We hope to average about 6.5 knots in the trade winds, or 156 mi/24 hour day if we're fortunate, or 17 days, April 8. Coincidentally there is an Oyster party planned for that night:-)

WHAT DO YOU DO ALL DAY?

Four of us have two-hour watches 3x per day. I'm at 1400-1600; 2200-2400 and 0600-0800, and Jan's right after me. Mike doesn't have an assigned watch but he's very aware of what's happening and pops up in the cockpit to discuss what's happening and what we might change to improve things. Or to discuss politics, history, business, the economy or whatever else comes up. A great watch system.

After a watch you fill out the log book, clean up after yourself and often head to bed to catch up on the sleep you miss overnight. Sometimes the boat is rocking and rolling so much it is difficult to sleep so you might get one hour here and there. Also when major sail changes happen it sometimes helps to have a third person (watch, Mike and ...) involved. So after all this you're involved in running the boat about 8 hours per day. Oh, then there's preparing meals, eating and cleaning up - so another 1 - 2 hours. And we're allowed daily showers, which is a godsend in this hot and sticky climate.

The rest of your waking time you do whatever you want. I'm reading Darwin's "Voyage of the Beagle" and trying to learn new knots from my iPhone app, Animated Grog Knots. I've got about five other books loaded on the iPad Kindle reader. Mike wants to practice French and has an audio tape we started listening to today, in preparation for French Polynesia. He's reading "The Swahilli Coast" about Vasco DeGama's exploits in the 1500's. And he handles the twice-daily Single Sideband Radio (SSB) Oyster Rally check-in. Deb is watching the entire Downton Abby series on the laptop DVD player we brought with us from Mystique. She uses headphones. She's racing through them at a pretty good clip! Jan is reading tons of stuff on her Kindle and did a sewing project to repair our dive bag. Joe fishes (caught three too-small tunas today), reads and uses his satellite phone to call Jenny, his girlfriend in New Jersey.


So, after three days at sea on the way to the Marquesas, that's it from the happy ship Quester. Oh! And happy equinox to you yesterday. The sun was directly overhead and shadows straight beneath an object which is very strange. And now the sun is to our north at noontime which is very disorienting. Everyone knows the sun is in the south!!!