Easing Out of the Doldrums?
April 28, 2019
Day 205
Noon Position: 02 23N 30 51W
Course(t)/Speed(kts): NW 5
Wind(t/tws): NExN 6 – 8
Sea(t/ft): NE 3
Sky: Clear then squalls
10ths Cloud Cover: 5
Bar(mb): 1015
Cabin Temp(f): 86
Water Temp(f): 84
Relative Humidity(%): 74
Sail: Big genoa and main, close reach on starboard
Noon-to-Noon Miles Made Good (nm): 64
Miles since departure: 27,549
Avg. Miles/Day: 134
Leg North Miles: 4,599
Leg North Days: 39
Avg. Miles/Day: 118
I dropped sails after dinner, and we drifted for several hours. A heavy sea. Mo rolled terribly. I had to wedge myself into my bunk to keep from being tossed around.
By midnight, a light breeze with drizzle; I put us on port tack and heading northeast. At least there is some north in the course, I thought.
But by 4am, our course was due east. Wind had begun to swing north, and was pushing us back into the belt of calms. Even so, I chose to do nothing for a couple hours. Would this wind settle in or die away as had the others?
If anything, when I came on deck at 6am, the northerly was fresher. And now it had some east in it.
I tacked around immediately, before coffee, even before making a log entry.
Yes, we’re now taking a northeasterly on starboard tack, headed northwest. This is our first taste of the NE Trades. At last.
Still, a pretty slow day. After lunch, we were becalmed for an hour as a squall passed overhead, and I can count five wind-robbing squalls as I scan Mo’s horizon. Missing them will be a matter of luck.
But it appears we may be easing out of the Doldrums. 
Randall, I think you and MO are doing really well crossing those beguiling doldrums! Someday I will show you the photo Andy took while swimming away from CARRONADE in an oily calm with huge swells sometimes obliterating the hull of the boat in the photo with only the dead and drooping sails sticking up just a 100 yards away from where my husband Andy was swimming with his old Nikonis waterproof camera back in 1966. He thought the wind would never come back!