Day 6

Today was exactly like the day before... cloudy, sailing through the black void of the night with diminishing wind and increasing vertigo, and wondering how Alan Andrews snuck a jet pack into Ragtime's new keel. On the plus side, we are still going along well, eating really well (Mom's chicken enchilada was a hit), and lots of jokes.

Some changes... 3 more showers, my first shave at sea, and the appearance of birds.

Today has been a bit of a challenge as a Navigator. We have all kinds of technology now, so that we can get the latest weather forecasts, as well as the satellite that actually measures the speed of the wind over the ocean. This is all supposed to make it possible to find a path through the doldrums (or officially the InterTropical Convergence Zone ITCZ). Unfortunately, the model predictions do not match each other, even for current conditions. They also don't match what the QuikSCAT satellite has been showing for wind. To top it off, the QuikSCAT doesn't seem to match what we are seeing on the water. So much for technology.

So, what to do? If you are following us, you can see I'm doing some Naviguessing. If it were the old days and we had no idea of the future wind, one would just try to make best miles to the finish. We aren't currently doing this. We are instead hoping the the gap in the ITCZ seen on QuikSCAT this morning will still be there tomorrow when we get to it... and/or we will get some extra pressure from the tropical low pressure system to the east. At the very least we'll get some significant squall activity soon.

Ragtime was in a possition to do a similar thing yesterday, but they took the opposite jibe and are skirting along the northern edge of the ITCZ, looking at a gap to the west. It may be there for them... of course I wish them luck (I'm just not saying which kind. ;-p).

So, we should get to the magic point tomorrow night. Dr. McGoldrick, time to use your influence.