Another warm and quiet night, and I am sat back at the computer. There was a decision to be made early on in the race. Head west into the Atlantic where various forecasts promised wind, or head east to Africa where the land traditionally would provide a breeze if there was none elsewhere. I planned to go west, then when the breeze died, head toward land. Some of the fleet did the same, but most followed their instinct, their previous knowledge? And went to the coast. For a while, the more westerly of the fleet didn't seem to have the advantage. But earlier tonight the breeze died, and I kicked myself for not being further west! Computers are all very well, but having run various scenarios through TIMEZERO, I have had it output every possible idea from going half way out to the middle of the ocean to sailing over land! In the end, not one of the forecasts came through correct, and we are just sailing with what wind we have, which is so often the case.
The crew are learning the difficulties of both staying motivated in light airs, and the very tricky business of helming with a spinnaker up when the boat's apparent wind, generated by its own momentum, is greater than the actual wind. With such a heavy boat this is like walking a tightrope. Turn one way or the other by just a degree, and the spinnaker collapses, the "wind" dies, spinning around through 180 degrees in direction. It then takes skill and patience to get going again.
The evolutions are by now pretty slick, we've had different sails up and down over the last 24 hours and the transitions are done effortlessly and at speed with such little amounts of wind. Meanwhile, I give up on the IT! Our batteries are not holding charge anyway, and with my calculations I can not afford the diesel to keep running them, so it might be back to the compass and stars...