Posted by Graham Cox
The end of week two saw the leading boats transition from the doldrums to the SE tradewinds, and then streaking away on a WSW course towards the Marquesas. The transition was somewhat turbulent, with Renaud Stitelmann reporting a night of storms on CAPUCINETTE, and Pilar Pasanau, on PETER PUNK, being so preoccupied with the weather and a broken autopilot that she was unable to make her scheduled fortnightly sat-phone call to MGR’s scribe.
The boats behind them did not fare any better when their turn came to cross the ITCZ. CanaDan, on LITTLE BEA, wrote: ‘OH WHAT A NIGHT! Last night was full of high-wind squalls, heavy rain, and overall miserable conditions. With all of the windspeed variation, and wind coming from all points of the compass, I ended up doing 5 sail changes in 4 hours …. that was exhausting! LITTLE BEA made very slight progress towards the Marquesas Islands in the last 18 hours. This was probably the most volatile weather that we have experienced since the latter part of Transat. One saving grace was that I was able to see some dolphins before the sun set last night! Just over 2800 nautical miles to go!’
Jasmine’s mother, Susan, posted the following notes: ‘Conditions have been constantly changing, the wind keeps shifting or dropping, she’s had beam-on swell, and in her words “Last night was horrific.” There were so many squalls, meaning lots of sail changes and not much sleep.’ The worst squalls always seemed to arrive around 0200.
Susan also reported that Jasmine had tangled with a fishing contraption. ‘At daybreak, whilst changing sails again, she realised that the boat was pointing due south but moving west. She’d passed a fishing buoy flag, then realised that a rope fishing line had wrapped around the keel and was slowing her down, as well as pushing her off course. It probably slowed her for a few hours, as it was only possible to see it in daylight.
‘Jasmine pulled in as much of the line as she could by hand, getting about 20m, and a stinking oil bottle used as a float, into the cockpit, before being able to cut the rest of the rope free on one side. She tried again on the other side, using the boat hook, but the weight was too much. Fortunately, it had enough tension that the knife cut straight through it, suddenly freeing the boat and increasing speed by 2 knots! There’s a high chance that this was discarded from the huge number of Chinese fishing vessels noted west of the Galapagos by SV WHITE MALKIN a few days ago.’
To compensate for these travails, Jasmine has had some wonderful wildlife encounters. Susan reported, ‘Yesterday she saw a pod of whales, and one of them fully breeched, landing on its back, and she’s had dolphins around too. Birds keep trying to land on NUMBATOU – so far, a tern has succeeded in perching on the Starlink, whilst another pooed on the pink spinnaker!
On the evening of 9 April, Aussie Dan posted: ‘Haven’t been online much the last few days, due to (the sky) being overcast and needing to manage my power. All going well onboard though and I am in good spirits, particularly since being out of the doldrums. The wind has generally been around 10-15 knots slightly forward of the beam. At times, there is a messy sea with random squalls, but generally decent conditions otherwise. It is going to somewhat of a drag race now to the Marquesas, so I am trying to keep the speed up as best possible, whilst looking after the rig as necessary.’
After drooling about eating raw fish earlier, Ertan finally caught another one, to his delight. Aussie Dan was so inspired by Ertan’s success that he threw out a lure too. ‘After seeing Ertan’s fish, I decided to have a go myself this evening, in the hope of some sashimi. It didn’t quite go to plan, as I ended up with a monster 5-6 foot Spanish mackerel! It was released in the water, as it was way too big to get onboard, and I am now on my way again. If my next tracker ping looks slow, it’s because the fish nearly halted the boat in its tracks. I might have lost a bit of ground, but that certainly made my day.’
Josh sent the following message to his supporters: ‘Greetings from SV SKOOKUM. Tough sledding around the equator, as to be expected. Have had glassy calm days in the doldrums, a little barn swallow that hung out in the cabin for a day, a visit from King Neptune to initiate one slimy pollywog into the fraternity of shellbacks, and some awesome sunset dinners. Thanks as always for your support.’
By the way, one of Josh’s supporters sent a note to say that his family have strong naval connections, and that wearing underpants on your head while crossing the equator for the first time is an old naval tradition. Just in case you were wondering!
Gary Swindail, on QUESTION 2, the fleet’s lone outrider to the north, was being forced SSW by light headwinds on 10 April, though it looked like he might be able to peel off further to the west later. By the end of the week, he’d found some wind and was averaging 5 knots, though he said conditions had become a bit rough, with cross-seas and squalls. By the evening of 14 April, he had closed up to about 60nm from Josh on SKOOKUM.
At 0800 UTC on 10 April, CAPUCINETTE was leading the pack, averaging 5.7 knots, sailing with a bone between her teeth, pretty much due west along the 5th parallel, with Keri Harris on ORIGAMI in second place, 94.5nm behind, averaging 5 knots. Aussie Dan’s IMMORTAL GAME was a mere 3.5nm behind Keri, with Pilar on PETER PUNK holding onto 4th place, 27.5 nm behind Dan. Since then, Keri has suffered a spectacular Chinese gybe, losing his newly-purchased Starlink over the side, but seems once again to be holding course and speed, hanging onto 2nd place.
The rest of the fleet was not much further back on the 10th, but there was wide variation in speed through the water, suggesting that conditions remained unstable. Over the next few days, most boats reported serious squalls and heavy rain, in between periods of steady 15-20 knot tradewinds. They maintained their relative positions, but were all now moving at reasonable speed, with arrival in the Marquesas expected in 2-3 weeks, depending on where they were in the pack, with 742.2nm separating Renaud in the lead from Gary at the rear. The only chance of anyone seriously challenging the leading four boats will be a large hole in the tradewinds to the west, which could be possible, as it is early in the season, or boat problems.
Adam Waugh, on LITTLE WREN, reported that the main bracket of his South Atlantic windvane had developed a structural crack where the unit swings from side to side. He jury-rigged it with two small hose clamps joined together, and it is holding for now. At 0400 UTC on 15 April, he was in 9th position, averaging 5.8 knots.
Renaud, as usual, has maintained a steady course and speed. He seems to have outrun the squalls plaguing others further east, having dived down to 5°S early. In his fortnightly call to this scribe, he said that the wind was blowing around 25 knots, with a bit of a lumpy sea. One wave had broken over the boat about 10 minutes earlier, but all was fine on board, though he’d like to see a little more sunshine and drier conditions. The boat had not taken any water below, but was damp from humidity, being frequently closed up.
He was broad-reaching with three reefs in the mainsail and the jib, the Hydrovane self-steering unit was in control the boat, while he got plenty of rest and, as usual, was cooking regular meals. He says he is motivated to cook by his dislike of freeze-dried food, but it is obvious he also enjoys cooking – for him it is not a chore.
He also made a point that this is a race, however, and that he keeps busy 24 hours a day, trimming and adjusting sails. He is working very hard to maintain his competitive advantage, and never sleeps for more than an hour. When not trimming sails, cooking, eating or sleeping, he downloads weather information and analyses how to take best advantage of conditions. He does not have time for reading or listening to music.
Despite the 100% cloud cover at the time of his call, he has had periods of sunlight to allow his 150-watt solar panels to put a charge in the batteries. He’d had three hours of sunlight that day, and one battery was reading 85% and the other 98%. As always, Renaud has CAPUCINETTE’s systems, from sails to solar, perfectly balanced for the long haul.
Aussie Dan reported that he’d had a wild couple of days aboard IMMORTAL GAME, with squalls coming through every 20 minutes, and had not slept for 24 hours at the time of his call. Surprisingly, he did not feel tired, but acknowledged he would have to sleep sooner or later if the unsettled weather continued. He mentioned that going on deck to hand-steer through the rainsqualls freshened him up a bit! Conditions had settled down in the previous few hours, but he mentioned there was a large, black cloud upwind of him, and shortly after saying that, a wave broke aboard. 24 hours later, he posted that he was finally seeing some sun.
He was wearing a beanie in one of his video posts, and said it was colder than he’d expected. IMMORTAL GAME was sailing along with just the A7 kite up, which allowed him to carry on with fewer sail changes. Unless the squall was severe, he would take over steering from the Hydrovane, running off downwind until the system passed. He had to leap outside and grab the tiller quickly, or the boat would round up.
IMMORTAL GAME is mostly still dry below, even though he likes to leave the hatch open a crack for ventilation, and also so that he can hear what is happening on deck. He finds that closing the hatch muffles sound, and makes him feel detached from his environment. Because they had recently got into a west-setting current, which ran at a different angle to some of the swells, the sea-state was uncomfortable at times, and waves occasionally swept the deck.
When he has to go on deck, he sometimes does so naked, which saves on wet clothes, but at other times, especially when it is cool, he wears a wet-weather jacket. Before going back into the cabin, he takes the jacket off, if he is wearing it, and dries it and himself as much as possible. So far, this regimen has kept the interior dry.
Now that they have got through the doldrums, which was always the great unknown, time-wise, and are barrelling along in the tradewinds with only a couple of weeks to go, Dan is feeling relaxed about this long passage. He caught about 40 litres of water off the mainsail in the squalls, bringing his total back up to 100L, so that is one less worry. He spends his downtime reading, or just looking out through the back hatch at the sea.
He spent lot of time on deck in the doldrums, where it was cooler, but now, with the spray flying and the temperatures dropping, he is spending most of his time in the cabin. He is trying to stay fit, though the motion of the boat makes traditional onboard exercise regimes, like yoga, something of a challenge. He feels that his legs are not as strong as they were before the start of the passage. Nonetheless, he is fairly active, and the motion of the boat, flinging him around, helps! The 2-3m cross-seas come and go, tending to flatten out in the squalls.
With the heavy overcast conditions, generating sufficient solar power has been an issue, and he has started switching off all equipment that is not absolutely necessary. Sometimes all he has running at night are his navigation lights.
He cooks proper meals most days, though has had a few spills, including an entire box of dry oats, which spread throughout the boat like nutritious confetti. He says he is looking forward to getting fresh food in the Marquesas, but the thing he is most looking forward to purchasing is a bottle of rum, having discovered in the doldrums, to his dismay, that he only had enough left to toast Neptune.
Jakub was sailing in steady tradewinds when he called, having decided to dive down to 6°S a couple of days earlier, to get away from the squalls that were plaguing him. He reflected that the passage from Panama had been quite varied so far, starting with the dream-like ride out of the Gulf of Panama, with BIBI making good 7-8 knots on the back of a strong favourable current, steady winds and smooth seas. He had been ecstatic then, thinking the Pacific Ocean deserved its name.
Then came the windless doldrums, when he had to fight for every mile, suffering heat exhaustion, followed by days of squalls and heavy rain in the ITCZ, before diving south and breaking out into the tradewinds. He could still see a large bank of cloud to his north, but was skirting along the southern edge of it in steady winds.
When he was 120nm SW of the Galapagos Islands, he ran afoul of a fishing line that tangled with his keel. He’d sighted a black flag dead ahead, but could not see any other markers, other than a fishing boat away to his north. He called the fishing boat on his VHF radio but got no response. The current was setting north, so he decided to pass the flag on the southern side, but suddenly found BIBI standing still, sails straining. Afraid that the line would either damage his keel or slip aft and rip off the Windpilot, he cut it with a knife, then fled to the south under cover of a convenient squall, switching off his AIS in case a vengeful fishing boat might pursue him! He had been carrying full mainsail and A5 kite, and did not reduce sail during the squall, screaming along with his heart in his mouth. It was, he said, a thrilling moment. Jakub, the South Seas pirate, strikes again.
Perhaps the weather that followed was his punishment, with fierce squalls, torrential rain, and winds that went around the clock for three days. After consulting the latest GRIB files, he then made the decision to head south. Renaud was also of the opinion that the majority of the fleet had turned west too early.
After Jakub had posted pictures online of BIBI’s Windpilot in the cockpit one night, speculation was rife about the unit being damaged, but he admitted there was nothing actually wrong with it, and put his decision to pull it on deck down to cabin fever. He’d woken up to find the unit behaving erratically and decided he could ‘improve’ it. Having thoroughly rebuilt his Windpilot, he knew it well, but after putting it back together, it performed worse than before! In the next calm, he removed it again and sorted things out, taking the opportunity at the same time to dive overboard and scrub the few barnacles and some weed off the hull.
Although BIBI’s cabin became damp in the rain, he kept things reasonably dry by taking off his gloves and clothes before going below, leaving them in the cockpit to dry between squalls. He placed his charts and logbooks in plastic bags, used one towel to dry his body, and another spread out on the mattress to lie on. Now that the weather is cooler, he regrets not having a sheet aboard to pull over himself at night. He has three sleeping bags but they are too hot.
In the doldrums, he suffered skin rashes from the heat, because it wasn’t always easy to wash the sweat off, though several showers in the rain squalls helped. He also had problems with the skin on his knees, which get knocked about when kneeling on deck. Photos show a condition similar to that suffered by Christian Sauer on ARGO. Jakub has been treating his wounds with a poultice of garlic, a natural antibiotic, and they are much improved.
His diet remains good, despite being at sea now for well over two weeks. He says he is not fussy about food, concentrating on carbohydrates for power, vitamins for renewal, and fibre for maintaining bodily functions. He still has lots of lemons, even though they have shrunk a little, garlic, onions, and lots of vegetables and fruit in cans. He alternates between pasta, rice and pumpernickel bread (the latter lasts for at least six months). He also took a lot of eggs, though complained several days ago that he was getting sick of them, while posting a photo of a delicious-looking omelette.
Much of his long-life food was gifted to him by Polish friends who run the Rooster Grocery Store in Carrigtwohill, County Cork. One of the interesting aspects of the MGR is the level of grass-roots support entrants have enjoyed. It seems that the amateur status of this race around the world in 19ft home-built plywood yachts touches people’s hearts.
Jasmine reported that she was still sailing through endless squalls. She’d taken to wearing sailing gloves to protect her wrinkled and rain-soaked fingers from damage when handling gear. Although the rain had eased at the time of her call, the sky was still overcast and her batteries were down to 10%, forcing her to switch off most things, including her beloved Starlink most of the time.
She is sailing consistently faster now than she did crossing the Atlantic, and commented that she was working hard at it. During the day, she has been setting her A5 kite opposite the A7, and hand-steering to keep the boat moving at its best in the desired direction. She was often at the helm from 0800 until 1800 without a break, unless conditions eased up a bit, when she briefly engaged the Hydrovane and took a short break. She likes hand-steering. At night, when she wants to rest, she changes down to the A7 and the jib, sometimes furling the A7, and even part of the jib in squalls. NUMBATOU keeps trucking along.
At least her chocolate isn’t melting in the cooler weather. It has been too cool for bikinis, her favourite sailing attire, and she has been wearing her big wet-weather jacket on deck as a windbreaker. NUMBATOU got wet below during the torrential rain, even her pillow, and she has spent some time sponging out the boat and trying to dry things. Luckily, the conditions have not affected her health, and her skin is in perfect condition, something she puts down to being young!
She was pretty tired, as she is up all night, adjusting things, and rarely gets to sleep for more than an hour at a stretch. She did manage to read a chapter in a book, but usually just alternates between steering, sleeping, and changing sails.
She has managed to get NUMBATOU surfing at times when hand-steering during the day, with regular three-metre seas rolling up astern, but there is a bit of an annoying cross-swell, and the boat has a tendency to broach if left to its own devices when pushing hard. Nonetheless, she is enjoying herself, and nothing has broken aboard, indicating that she is managing the ship well. She estimates she has about 19 days before arrival in the Marquesas.
Josh was his usual ebullient self when he called. He meets all circumstances with an equanimity born from long experience. A few days of drifting in the doldrums bear no comparison to being socked in by the weather in the mountains – he has been known to be stuck in his tent up there for two weeks or more. That is really confined!
He quite enjoyed the doldrums, apart from watching the rest of the fleet get away from him. After three days of drifting without steerage way, he was happy to finally get some breeze. This led him, as with the others, into the ITCZ, with its torrential rain and squalls, though in his case, mostly the squalls had more rain than wind. Except once, when lulled by previous squall conditions, he left the spinnaker up and SKOOKUM suffered a full knockdown.
He now had a steady wind and was scooting along at 6 knots. He was doing a bit of hand-steering, particularly when hard-pressed, to try and make up a few miles. The South Atlantic windvane handles the boat well when everything is balanced, but when hard-pressed tends to lose control in the gusts when SKOOKUM crests a wave. Josh mentioned that it would perform perfectly well if he was just cruising, if he reefed early, keeping the boat loping along, instead of trying to hang onto sail for as long as he dared.
He has been flying a combination of sails in the changeable conditions, from just the A3 kite when running dead downwind, to the A5 poled out opposite the A7, or just the A5. At the time of his call, in fresher winds, he had the triple-reefed mainsail and jib up, and was still trucking along at well over 5 knots. When he thinks he can power up a bit more, he rolls out the A7, and sometimes sees bursts of speed up to 7 or 8 knots. Because he is racing, he always tries to push the boat a bit more than he would usually do, balancing this out with the desire to husband his gear for the long haul.
He is thoroughly enjoying this long passage, but laments that he has already read all his books, being a fast reader. Most of his books are on his Kindle, but he has two favourite paperbacks aboard, Moitessier’s THE LONG WAY, a lyrical account of participating in the original GGR, and Laura Hillenbrand’s UNBROKEN, a biography of World War II veteran, Louis Zamperini, both inspirational works. Being a veteran expeditioner, Josh knows that perception is critical. To quote the opening words of THE SMALL BOAT THAT CASTS A LONG SHADOW, this scribe’s article on TREKKA and John Guzzwell, ‘It is sometimes said that the difference between an adventure and an ordeal is attitude.’
SKOOKUM was lining up to achieve a 120nm day, and Josh hoped he might do 130nm the following day, making up a little for starting late and then falling into a wind hole while everyone else sailed away. To compensate for being at the back of the fleet, he is expecting Gary Swindail, aboard QUESTION 2, to converge with him in a day or so, and then the two of them will have their own private race to the islands. Josh notes that QUESTION 2 is a light boat, so he will have to work hard, but relishes the thought.
He is in excellent health, having started the MGR with good residual fitness, but is a bit worried that lying around too much might cause some muscular atrophy. He has been trying to do stretches and resistance exercises, such as lying on his bunk and pushing his legs against the deck, but notes, like others, that the lack of space, and the quick movement of the 580s, limits one’s ability to work out.
Josh enjoys eating well, and carefully prepares a decent meal each evening. His description of typical meals sounds like he is reading from a restaurant menu. For instance, the previous night, he made what he called, ‘poor man’s fish tacos’, with instant rice, sauteed fresh garlic, sun-dried tomatoes and a can of tuna, served on tortillas, with mayonnaise and hot sauce. The previous night, he had tricolored penne, with sauteed garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, tuna and red sauce.
He has managed to keep SKOOKUM dry inside. Most of the time he is just wearing shorts and a t-shirt. If they get wet on deck, he takes them off before coming below, towels off, then sits on the step inside the companionway until his skin is dry. If he has to come below wearing oilskins, he carefully removes them while sitting on the step, puts them under the seat, then follows the above procedure.
During the last big calm, he tied a rope fore and aft along the topsides and went overboard to clean the bottom. There were a few barnacles and some weed, mostly on protuberances like the keel and rudder bolts, but the rest of the underbody was not too bad.
His major challenge on this leg has been trying to discourage seabirds from roosting on board. He initially welcomed the first one, since he likes birds, but discovered, the following morning, a stinking mess of guano all over his solar panels. Now he spends his time regularly shooing them off with the boathook (they have sharp beaks and a sense of entitlement).
Other than that, all is good. SKOOKUM is a happy ship.
So, for now, the boats keep trucking west. Barring misadventure, not much will happen from day to day, and it is unlikely that there will be any major reversals of fortune. John Blinky Blenkinsop and Daydreaming Mike Blenkinsop, on DELJA 100 and DELJA 99, respectively, left Panama today to chase them, after a long, unfortunate delay.
As Don McIntyre says, this might make for boring viewing, unless you are enthralled with small boat voyaging, but the view from the deck of the MGR fleet is almost certainly livelier. Without a doubt, the MGR can now be declared a success, and has established itself as one of the greatest small boat adventure stories of all time.
Image shows Dan Turner smiling with relief after escaping the Doldrums – south of the Galapagos Islands, 09 April, 2025.
