| From The Equator |
| Sunday, 13 February 2005 |
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It’s another hot and sticky day today as we race southwards from the equator to the next transition: the second doldrums that take us into the high pressure 'trade winds' blowing around the high to the west of Australia. It’s just 200 miles away and we will be entering the zone tonight, lots of squalls in prospect before we get to the steady easterlies on the other side.
That will make 3 nights in a row of negotiating continuous rain showers. The initial night was at the first doldrums. We had the clouds all to ourselves, and lost a huge amount of distance to Geronimo as we parked most of the night behind a slow moving wall of rain. Last night was squally too but we managed to keep moving throughout so fingers crossed we have gained some back on Geronimo who should have been in heavier squalls to our west. Our separation has grown to over 100 miles laterally so we could be in radically different conditions particularly as we line up to cross these final doldrums. It’s something of a lottery as it is so hard to forecast the fast changing and tiny systems along this transition line.
Whichever way you look at it, the first one into the trade winds is going to have the upper hand on the race south towards the roaring forties and the express train eastwards below Australia and New Zealand towards Cape Horn.
Brian
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