Southern Hemisphere - and the air is fine

Just checking in...

We crossed the Equator a few days ago, and Neptune made an appearance. Now four Shellbacks continue southwards, with light winds and big swells - a combination that makes for less than idea progress. We're doing some downwind sailing - even some dead-downwind,but the big swells tend to spill air from the sails.

We're all well. Hot and sticky. Anxious for our landfall, and hope our daily average speed picks up (which would need the seas to lay down a bit, and/or the winds to pick up a bit). Love to family and friends.

Owen, Carrie, Griffyn, Tamsyn
S/V Madrona

Lat 4.25 S
Long 134.25 W

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Escape from Alcatraz?

After battling big swells out of the south, no wind most of the time, and near constant downpour, today we may have broken out of the ITCZ. We saw two separate storms coming from the south this morning, but today, instead of eight foot swells, the swells had laid down and were running only four feet. Also, this time there was a barely perceptible gap between the storms. There lay our chance.

With the winds freshening quickly from the south, we sailed SE toward the leftward (eastern) storm cell, then the gust front reached us, and we had almost met the eastern edge of the cell, we tacked quickly and sped south - riding the entire length of the gust front until we ran out of storm. The winds kept pushing us toward storm cell # 2; another quick tack, and the winds rushing out of it's gust front kept us moving. And after an hour we were free the little area we have called home for three days. Try as we could the past few days we could advance no further.

As I right we are still headed south, trying to get clear of, and far away from the ITCZ. The skies have opened up somewhat, cumulus clouds crowd the sky (along with some isolate thunderstorms - but not the wall of storms to the north), and the winds have been steady out of the NE for over 7 hours. Happy to be moving. Have our daring travelers escaped? To find out tune in next week; same bat channel, same bat time.

Owen

N 4 25.000
W 129 00.000

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Still in the doldrums

Hey all,

Another pubic service announcement.

We are still trying the escape the light, non-existent, or just plain contrary winds of th ITCZ (the doldrums). Que the Twilight zone theme.

We also had no SSB radio for a few days. No power getting to it, but I messed around for bit today and got it working again. If we ever just stop communicating - radio problems are the likely cause. We were sweating bullets at the thought of no radio.

We've sailed 50 miles today. we are on the southern margins of the doldrums, and are getting a bit of inconsistent wind again. We haven't escaped the rain however. Argh.

Anyway, all of us are well, but all of us want badly to get moving again.

Owen, Carrie, Tamsyn, Griffyn
S/V Madrona

N 4 52.244
W 128 54.051

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Slow goig here in the doldrums.

Just touching base from the twilight zone that is the doldrums.

The last four days have been a slow slog southward. We've motored some- but can't do much of that. Sailing has been frustrating in the extreme because the winds are so light and change direction constantly. And it as been pouring rain. Like Noah type rain. We found all our leaks - that's for sure.

Hope to get out of this hell in a few days. Getting west of 130 degrees, and south of 5 degrees will seem like a miracle. Winds should be more steady there. Otherwise we are well. Our water tank is full and we have lots of food.

Cheers

P.s. Paul - I've tried our call schedule on 12A, but getting lots of digital traffic. Can we also try another channel?

Owen, Carrie, Griffyn and Tamsyn
S/V Madrona

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The ITCZ

So we've reached the ITCZ, where air circulation from north and south hemispheres come together. We were going to keep heading south, as we have all day, but the huge line of four thunderstorms made us reconsider and head west a bit more - at least until the storms dissipate a bit during the night. These storms would look right at home on the South Dakota prairies.

Hopefully we don't get much lightening. Lightning can fry our radio. Otherwise we are well. Hamburgers and home made bread tonight.

Owen

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Warm and Humid

So we are plugging away - moving south and west - toward a magical point where we will cross the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). This zone is girdles the earth near the equator, and is what most folks know as the doldrums. We've already had some days without much wind, it's frustrating knowing you have a long ways to go, and he wind is only blowing 6 knots - occasionally, and from the same direction for or than 10 minutes at a time. When we cross the ITCz we wil do so traveling straight southward t minimize our transit time.

All of us are feeling the increasing warmth. Night watches are no longer affairs where all the foul weather gear goes on. Instead we wear shorts and a T-shirt. Squalls and small thunderstorms are cropping up every day too; another sigh we are nearing the ITCZ.

All of us are well, dealing with sweat and grime as well as possible. It would be nice to have our main sail up fully at night, but being a mom & pop crew - and constantly needing to balance fatigue with the speedy progress that comes with frequent sail changes, we sometimes have to opt for rest and a little slower progress.

School is in session a few hours a day, with reading, math, and writing taking up a day each, rather than a portion of one school day. Carrie is lamenting the fact that she didn't get a hair cut before leaving Mexico. All of us enjoyed a true spectacle today. 1000's of flying fish would burst out of the water like silver darts - being chased by skipjack tuna, and often when escaping the tuna below in the water, they would fall prey to pin-wheeling sea birds. So with dozens of flying fish airborne at any given moment, and perhaps a hundred birds swooping and banking to intercept them, the tuna come bursting out of the water like rockets - following their small prey. More than once I saw birds and tuna collide. It lste for two hours and was great fun.

Anyway - doing well. More in a few days.

Lat 10 41 north
Long 123 18 west

Carrie, Owen, Tamsyn & Griffyn
S/V Madrona

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Moving along - the air is gettting warm!

By morning we will be over 900 miles offshore. We are all doing well; none of the greeness of the first week, and we are pretty firmly set in our watch schedules. While I wouldn't say this passage is "fun, fun, fun" it's not too bad.

The winds are still blowing hard most of the time - so much so that it has been days since we shook the last reef out of the main. The Monitor wind vane (Monty) is great, though it doesn't "like" dead downwind too much. We've got a good mostly downwind sail combination that is proving easy to balance, and thus easy for the Monitor to drive. The combo is one reef in the main sail, the storm staysail, and varying degrees of our jib - which is on a roller furler. This sail selection is heavy on the front of the boat, and so works good in the whole downwind thing.

We had a dead flying fish on deck yesterday, and two boobies hitched a ride on the bow all night. Last night a little bird, some sort of petrel (like a smaller version of a Wilson's Storm Petrel)landed in the cockpit and this little guy has been camped out all day. He must be pretty tired.

Been running through rain squalls the last 24 hours, and look forward to increasing instability the closer we get to the equator. Two days ago we were at North 16 degrees, and now we are at North 13 degrees.

Hope everything is well with friends and family. We are fine. Had a nice spaghetti dinner with Romaine Lettuce for salad. Making apple crisp in the pressure cooker for desert. Tomorrow making French bread.

Owen, Carrie, Griffyn and Tamsyn
S/V Madrona

N 13 49.366
W 120 55.568

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