Samuel Taylor Coleridge may have said it best when he wrote:
Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.
What he was referring to, of course, was that mind-numbing part of any circumnavigation of the globe—the doldrums, or “Pot au Noir,” as the French so elegantly put it.
The 15-boat fleet competing in the Mini Globe Race is in the thick of it, with some sailors reporting searing hot temperatures and no wind as far as the eye can see. It’s what it is, but these sailors face a unique situation. Let me explain.
In most around-the-world races, the yachts transit the ITCZ (Intertropical Convergence Zone—or doldrums) on a north-south axis. This means they are either sailing from Europe toward the southern latitudes or vice versa. The trick for them is to hit the windless belt at its narrowest point and slice through it. In other words, make haste southward (or northward) as quickly as possible. However, for the sailors racing in the Mini Globe Race sailing their ALMA Globe 580s, their course from Panama to Fiji is more nuanced—it’s certainly not a simple north-south route. Instead, these racers follow a west-southwest course that mostly parallels the ITCZ. So, what’s the strategy?
Based on the Race Tracker, most of the fleet seems to have decided to bite the bullet and sail a more southerly course. This isn’t good for their distance-to-finish number, but it may be the only way to escape the clutches of this windless zone.
The French call this area the “Pot au Noir” for good reason. It really is a black pot—with hellishly hot temperatures, calm, glassy seas, and sudden, violent squalls that bring intense gusts of wind followed by torrential rain. And then, like a guy on a first date, the squall leaves as quickly as it came (sorry, couldn’t help myself). The “black” refers to the sky, which turns a furious shade of black as the squalls approach. If you’re not ready for it, a tropical squall can knock your mast into the water and give you an unexpected laundering.
Looking at the Windy app, there doesn’t seem to be any relief in sight. They’ll just have to suck it up, smear on plenty of sunscreen, and remember—this is the ticket they bought, and it wasn’t a cheap one. So, make the best of it and have fun.
