Shhh, don't make a sound! Against the rustle of the gennaker filling and emptying with the rising and falling of the swell, we are trying to slip through the doldrums, that region of major meteorological disturbance. Since crossing the equator, we've been playing a game of cat and mouse with a small low-pressure center fluctuating like crazy, wind from the east, from the south, then from the northeast. We're following this weather system by the hour thanks to satellite photos, and we're adjusting our route as the center changes. Thanks to that system there's a breeze of 5-8 knots on the big blue. Nothing to go crazy about, but it lets us avoid the worst: the big while calm.
So in this south/southeasterly breeze, we are doing what we can to get closer to the doldrums' exit. If all goes well, we should be out of the weeds this evening and will find a stronger northeast wind to tap into. But we have to say that softly: here, more than anywhere else, everything can change in a heartbeat, depending on the whim of a single ill-intentioned cloud.
Goodbye
Nicolas Raynaud