Naviguessing the way through the Doldrums

by Rich Roberts on 30 Jun 2008
Ah, the plight of a navigator in the toughest part of the 3,571 nautical miles of the Transpacific Yacht Club’s 13th Tahiti Race. Flip a coin, roll the dice, bet on red of black, raise or fold?

It’s not supposed to be that away anymore in the 21st century of space age technology, but the Doldrums remain as large a puzzle as they were in the days of sextants and such.

Early Sunday it appeared that Doug Baker’s front running Magnitude 80 would find its way across the equator sometime Monday, a day or so later than recently anticipated. But who knows?

Jim Morgan, charting the course on his Santa Cruz 50, Fortaleza, conceded Saturday: '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 gap in the ITCZ seen on QuikSCAT this morning will still be there [Sunday] 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 position 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).'

Speaking of 'significant squall activity,' Ernie Richau, navigator on Mag 80, reported Saturday: 'The 'duldrums' are anything but dull! Last night it rained very hard as we passed through the largest front any of us on the boat have ever sailed through. When one of our trimmers Erik [Fisher] got off watch he thought he was in for a break from the water. Well ... when he got in his bunk and turned on the fan that our boat captain Ty [Pryne] installed to keep the sleeping crew cool Erik found he was in for a big surprise. The fan just blew water everywhere! That's how it is here. Very wet! We are at about latitude 6N in the ITCZ. Things are going well. Our 6am to 1230pm plots gave us an average speed of over 17 knots for those 6.5 hours.'

Later, the boats’ positions indicated that Mag 80 on the west was likely beating into light headwinds to get to the southeast trades lying just south of it, while Ragtime on the east side was sailing to a zone of light variable winds, becoming southeasterly on the other side.

That probably meant many sail changes, like the overnight portion of a typical Newport to Ensenada race, only over a much greater distance---about 200 miles in Mag 80's case and nearly 300 miles for Ragtime. It appeared that Mag 80 was winning the tactical battle against the old gal Ragtime.

The southeast breeze along the equator was forecast at 10 knots. As of midnight PDT Saturday, Mag 80 had less than 350 miles to go to the equator, Ragtime about 600, 550 for Med Man and 850 for Fortaleza.

Med Man was still in the northeast trades, logging an average SOG [speed over ground] of 13 knots as she sailed 77 miles from 6 p.m. to midnight Saturday. In the same span Mag 80 had an average SOG of 6 knots and sailed through 35 miles of ocean to gain only 27 miles towards Tahiti.

Blogs from the boats

Medicine Man: The scoop works well down below. Had a great halfway party yesterday.

Ragtime: Doldrums pretty interesting. Blew out a spin sheet and then a spinnaker during the night. Saw a huge school of big tuna hitting a bait ball, plus three freighters.

Jim Morgan, Fortaleza: Entering ITCZ today. Goodbye kite, it’s been fun. [Later] 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 [designer] Alan Andrews [actually on board Medicine Man] 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.

Tahiti Race 2008 standings
(boat for boat at 6 a.m. PDT Sunday)

1. Magnitude 80 (Andrews 80), Doug Baker, Long Beach, 226 miles daily run/1,452 nautical miles to go.
2. Medicine Man (Andrews 63), Bob Lane, Long Beach 308/1,615.
3. Ragtime (Spencer 65), Chris Welsh, Newport Beach, 185/1,832.
4. Fortaleza (Santa Cruz 50), Jim Morgan, Long Beach, 208/2,030.

Tahiti Race information is available from www.transpacificyc.org