Tuesday 21st October 11:38
PUMA, Kenny Read (Skipper)
The story of the worlds largest doldrums.
It is well documented that this is my first doldrums crossing--and of course my first equator crossing. Yeah yeah, I know. The antics of "King Neptune" are not far away now. Casey Smith, Mickey Mueller and myself have that to look forward to! But, for the last couple of days or so it has felt like we would never get to those antics. Light air running - just getting going only to be smacked by a cloud that has no wind. Then a cloud with pressure gives you hope. And then a clearing that brings slapping sails. And it goes on, and on, and on.
Early in the race we knew that this was going to be a major trap. The doldrums as described by Capey (Andrew Cape - navigator) in his typical understated tones were "unusually large". Which is translated to," Holy crap, there isn't any wind forever!" Actually what he described is that the doldrums are exactly where they usually are, and aren't really that large, but there is a huge band of no wind to the north of the doldrums making it seem like the worlds largest doldrums. And he was right.
So we entered the lead with only our historical data, some pretty sketchy weather analysis and a prayer. Just hoping to get out within some shot of the lead, and not put ourselves in position to have to play a substantial catch up game in the next part of this race, which is notoriously hard to catch up in.
We aren't out yet. Capey figures 60 miles to go as I write this. And our goal isn't secured to get out within a shot of the lead either. Things are just now starting to become clearer though. I think in this particular case it was certainly a disadvantage to enter this massive doldrums in the lead.
A few of the boats had a nice shot at seeing our 3 hour position reports and seeing what the wind was doing with us and evaluating their weather files and deciding where to go next.
We always like the west, but to go there meant to jibe away from the entire fleet at one point and give up the lead for positioning sake - while still in the lead. A lead that we had planed down the Atlantic Ocean to grab. And there was certainly some of the old adage - "if you don't have a clear picture - stay between your competitors and the mark". Well, we ended up losing the lead by being too tactically conservative at the front end of the doldrums. In the Green Dragons case, they did a really nice job, back a hundred miles at one point, sailing right around the fleet to the west. Same thing with Ericsson 4, who after dropping off Tony (Mutter) for medical help found themselves a ways back and also boogied to the west.
We got to the west finally as well, although a little late. And hopefully this strategy will inevitable pay off for us over this last 60 miles. I will tell you it is no fun seeing a particular 3 hour boat position report and finding out that by sailing sideways on the race track to get to the west, you actually gained little to no ground toward the mark and lost 15+ miles to most of the other competitors each time we did it.
All for the end game though. And in this case the end game is getting out of this bear trap called the "extended" doldrums. And we don't even know for sure if this will work yet in the end! Did I mention that it is pretty hot as well?
We are working hard to keep things loose on the craft. Pretty easy to do when you are sailing with some of the most sarcastic people on earth. Makes it quite enjoyable actually, especially during trying times like ":massive doldrums" and a bad position report or two.
I bet all of you at home are tearing your hair out watching this unfold. Believe me, I know exactly how you feel!
Hopefully the next writing can come from il mostro with a bit more conviction and normalcy. Dear Lord I hope so!
Received 11:38