The Doldrums

The Doldrums

The trip from the Las Perlas islands to Galapagos goes through the doldrums. Most everyone knows that is an area between the northern trade winds and the southern trade winds. I don't think most understand how large of an area it is. On the weather maps, it is an area of about 600 square miles. We started from the Las Perlas Islands under spinnaker and were making 6 to 7 knots. Around sunset, the wind started to gust to 20 knots so we rolled out jib and took down the chute.

The wind continued to blow until around 3 the following day when it started to die and went slack in about 2 hours. From a steady 18 to 5 knots in about two hours. We were prepared for this and started the motor. The lack of wind didn't curtail the waves, which were running behind us at about 3 to 5 feet with an occasional 8 footer. The auto pilot did well and we motored into the night. The next morning the waves were down to a couple of feet but still 3 to 5 knots of wind. We motored into the afternoon as the waves continued to get smaller. By around 3 pm the waves were left over rollers about 2 feet. The wind was 0 to 5 knots.

It was almost as the wind was teasing us. A zephyr would work it's way in making us think the wind was picking up, but then nothing again. Then from a different direction, it would start to build, again teasing us then going away. Some times it would come from opposite directions, but usually from the southwest and south east. I suspect the zephyr were from clouds causing thermals on the water.

On the second day, I noticed that the rollers were now from the southwest instead of out of the northeast, the direction we had come from. It was about eight hours later that we had solid 5 to 8 knots out of the southwest. Enough to sail. The motor went off and we were sailing again. We sailed for another eight hours when the wind switched to the southwest, the direction we were heading. The change in wind direction was foretold by the change in the ground swells. We tried of the motor on and off, jib in and out, as the wind was constantly changing, as it would continually swing between south, southwest and southeast. We basically motored 600 out of the 850 miles from the Las Perlas Islands to the Galapagos as did most of the fleet.

Enjoy the pictures from the doldrums.

We also have a picture of our new crew. Not much of a crew really, he stinks, lays around all day and makes terrible noises.

The movie is our toast to Neptune as we crossed the equator.

We also have a picture of our new crew. Not much of a crew really, he stinks, lays around all day and makes terrible noises.