Daedalus ‘down in the doldrums’

by Brian Hancock on 13 Apr 2005 A painfully slow trip aboard Daedalus as Tony Bullimore and his team struggle to get free from the grip of the doldrum belt and reach the Oryx Quest finish line.

In the past three days they have covered less than 300 miles through the water, and despite some occasional steady breeze, it does not look likely that they are going to be on a fast train north any time soon.

At one point during Monday afternoon, the Daedalus crew actually sailed backwards at 2 knots; not exactly a stellar performance for one of the world’s fastest catamarans.

Tony, a veteran of many dog days in the doldrums, knows just what to do when the water feels like glue. Put on some good music and dream about life somewhere other than where you are.

His daily log is quintessential Bullimore. ‘Just had supper,’ he wrote. ‘Mountain House beef burgers and mashed potatoes. It went down okay and certainly filled up the belly.

‘It's a really hot night and l am playing some sweet golden oldies from Jamaica; blue-beat at its best. You know the kind of stuff, Tommy McCook on sax and Don Drummond on trombone, Sly Dumbar on drums. You know what l mean?

‘All that is missing is me being able to sit down with a few good friends, break bread and drink some festival water. It's all a bit macabre really.

‘The boat is sitting in the middle of the Indian Ocean with this really great music floating over these calm waters; a few lights around the boat adds atmosphere.'

Daedalus is currently on the same latitude as the southern tip of India, about 550 miles off the coast. To the north, an area of high pressure has established itself very nicely with a steady clockwise circulation of wind.

The fringes of the new breeze are tantalizingly close, but it looks as if there is nothing steady for about the next 200 miles.

After that, it’s going to be a long, hard slog to windward, but even pounding uphill will be a welcome relief after fours days of sitting still.

Tony is still hoping they can set a new fastest circumnavigation time for the boat. The old record, set in 1994/95, was accomplished by the late Sir Peter Blake and Sir Robin Knox-Johnston when the boat was called ENZA. Their time was 74 days.

Tony’s wish is that they can get around in less than 70 days. His log continues: ‘We are still on target to break all the boats previous records.

'We have got to cross the finishing line in 74 days and a few hours to do this.

‘All we can do is look out over the very calm and still waters of the Indian Ocean, watch the sun coming alive in the east, and relax with a mug of coffee. It would be very nice to know that we are getting some very favourable winds later in the day, but we must wait and see.’

At the 07:00 GMT poll on Tuesday morning GMT, Daedalus was still 1,575 miles short of the finish line. In order to get to Doha in less than 70 days, the yacht would need to average more than 15 knots - not impossible for the large catamaran.

To all the crew logs from Doha 2006 go to www.maxicatdoha.com.

To read all the logs from Daedalus go to www.teambullimore.com.

www.oryxquest.com

*Amended by Sail-World