It is Sunday afternoon and if you`d like to come over for a cup of tea and a piece of bread pudding, you`ll find us at lattitude 02.50.6N and longitude 035.25.92W, on a beam reach with wind speed between 13 to 15 knots and boat speed at 7 to 8 knots. Another 1550 miles to the north eastern tip of Trinidad.

Yes, we have at last broken free from the grip of the doldrums.

Instead of continuing on our originally-planned route when we encountered the windless conditions much further south than expected (doldrums), we turned north for the shortest route through the doldrums. This meant coming out at the top considerably further west than intended, but also that we could go past the St Peter & St Paul rocks, a very remote spot in the Atlantic ocean which belongs to Brazil and has only a weather station on it. With our luck we passed it in the dead of night & could not see a thing. Next time around. Being too small for an airport and without a permanent population, it should remain remote, at least until we get the next opportunity to see it.

Strange how it happened - one moment we were still motoring at a snail's pace a few miles north of the St Peter & St Paul rocks and still very close to the equator (50' N), the next moment there was 12 knots of wind from the north-north-east enabling us to sail our course on a close reach (wind from the front) - not the most comfortable point of sail, especially with the swells coming out of the same direction, however at about 60 degrees off our starboard bow, much better than a true beat (closest angle we can sail to the wind), and we are at times making a handsome 8 knots in the right direction, albeit a bit bouncy. This happy event occurred around midnight on Thursday (by the way, our local time was then UTC-2). The wind quickly built to around twenty knots working up a wicked cross swell and settled later at 17 to 20 knots, but hey, we are moving - basically as fast as we had the stomach for..

Typically, it did not take too long for our elation to make way for wistful speculation as to when the real trade wind conditions will set in: wind & swells from the northeast and wind strength more in the region of 12 to 15 knots.

Well, we are still biting the bullet, it has now been more than five hundred miles, and still counting. According to the sailing directions, the blessed trade wind nirvana should be reached no further north than 5 degrees latitude. If that holds true, we still have a about three hundred miles of our current conditions to contend with, sailing along our direct route for Trinidad. The current wind direction prevents us sailing a more northerly course which could have shortened the ordeal...

On the positive side, despite all of the above which is giving the boat a bit of a beating, we have had hardly any breakages, and for the minor incidents we have had so far, we had either the necessary replacement part on board or were able to figure a way around the problem.

..and we are still doing it for fun...and fun we are having.