We made our 6th crossing of the equator yesterday at 29 21W and entered the doldrums at 2 20N 30 23 W. This was a bit further east than we had originally planned, but as we were approaching I saw that in this area the weather forecast (Grib rain layer) had the doldrums pulling north as we approached and then moving back south, so that we would have a to deal with them for only a very short time. That seemed to work out as we exited the doldrums and picked up the start of the NE trade winds after only 34.3 miles. We now have about 2000 miles to go to Antigua and should have pretty fast sailing, but it may be a little rough if the 'Christmas winds' (winter reinforced trade winds) have started blowing.

Each of our six doldrums crossings has been very different. Sometimes the doldrums have been quite wide and sometime narrow, sometimes they have been clearly defined (as this time with solid walls of rain on entering and exiting) and sometimes with no clear edges, sometimes there has been a lot of rain and lightning inside the doldrums and other times there has been clear sunny skies (pretty much the case this time - most of the rain was at the edges and we had no lightning at all).

Happy New Year!