We seem to be out of the ITCZ now...we hope. It has been a tricky piece of sailing this past week. As we approached the equator we had been watching the weather charts to try and identify the narrowest band of light wind so we could motor across"the doldrums" and into the NE trade winds. We could see that the narrow part was in fact where it was suggested to be by one of our books on world sailing routes, so we made for the equator and 031 degrees west. When the wind died we started the engine and headed NW to where the forecast in 48 hours time showed there to be 15 kts of wind from the NE. We had our equator party and continued motoring the 240 miles we thought would see us across the doldrums except when we made the 240 miles there still wasnt any wind. Hum... We were getting low on fuel. We have fuel capacity aboard to motor about 500 miles, but since we also run the engine regularly to keep the batteries charged and we always reserve a certain amount of fuel in case of emergency and for getting into port, I figured we didnt want to use any more. So we sat around for half a day not really going anywhere. The next afternoon after looking at weather charts again and convincing ourselves that the wind must be just ahead of us we gave it another 6 hours of "Iron Jenny". Still nothing. After another day of floating around in nothing but whispers of wind the dark clouds that signaled the presents of the ITCZ and doldrums conditions started to disappear. First a puff, then a breeze, and a few hours later we were making way, 6 kts on course! One day, 150 miles, the next 148, we were really in it now. But then those dark clouds reappeared and with them went the steady wind. "Is it following us?" the crew asked the captain. "By the looks of the weather fax, Im afraid so my dear" the captain replied. The next three days were a steady procession of squalls and rain with intermittent wind. Not that we werent able to make some headway, but not what we had hoped from the NE trades. So when the dark clouds disappeared again yesterday we were happy to see the return of steady wind. We have made use of the plentiful rain in the doldrums however. With a bucket tied to the mast below the sail, every time a good soaker comes along (if not inspired to go out and shower in it directly), water from the sail funnels to the bucket and we have free fresh water for bathing at the end of the hot tropical day.

And the Week 3 Stats 745 miles made good 106 average best day 150 worst day 45 54 hours motoring 110 liters fuel used 50 liters fuel remaining 0 fish caught