Paul Larsen reports...

from on board Doha 2006 in the Oryx Quest

'What sort of ocean has two doldrums'? That was the question that was left hanging in the calm air on deck as our navigator Will Oxley disappeared down below to have another look at the weather maps.

Normally when you go south through the doldrums you hit a belt of E-SE tradewinds with their trademark white fluffy clouds wheras this time we hit a belt of westerlies before hitting another set of 'doldrums' or more accurately, another zone of convergence. This is where the westerlies literally converged with the E-SE winds and the moist tropical air is forced upwards where it cools and promptly soaks everything underneath in great rainsqualls.

My day's mission was to film 'A day in the life of' a crewmember. This would require me to shadow them for the whole day and film what their daily schedule went like, warts and all.. So I get up an hour before my watch begins and film my unwilling participant getting out of bed. He stole my wide angle lens. That's about as far as I got.

Although I was on 'standby' watch things began to get busy on decks as we sailed into this second convergence zone. First came the squalls bringing shifts in the wind direction and strength and then it began to rain quite hard. We all washed and collected fresh water for washing clothes and drinking. Although we make all our own fresh water on board, the process removes a lot of the minerals out of the water as well as the salt leaving what we all take to be a tasteless liquid tasting truly tasteless. You notice the difference.

It rained and it rained and we filled every bucket. Everyone washed and generally enjoyed feeling the fresh water washing away the salt and sweat.

The boat went through a series of what could best be described as 'auto-tacks' where the wind would just pop to the other side without us actaully changing course. We went through this manouver around four times all the while wondering what was to come of it, what sail might work best and in which direction it would be best to sail in to escape into the Trades.

To sail to the mark which is the SW tip of Australia would require us to sail diagonally across this zone and therefore spend more time in it wheras sailing directly south would give us the shortest passage across. We sailed south hoping that Geronimo was having as hard a time. We believed they were.

The seas were terrible in that they were very confused requiring us to take a reef in the light winds so as to preserve the battens as the boat flopped around. The big gennakers which are so good at creating apparent wind were put away in favour of the much stronger yankee which could stand up to the 'slatting' much better.

We made a slow course southwards like this for quite awhile. All the time it rained. Many of us went to a light rain smok once we were rinsed and changed into something dry. The neck had a funnelling effect and we all got wet through once more.

It has been a hot and remarkably dry trip so far. I have been wearing some sandals from the start 9 or so days ago and haven't even trimmed the rubber neck seals on my foul weather gear to fit my neck and wrists. The clothing worn has mostly been simply to keep the sun off. It's funny how when you are hot for a long time, you can't imagine being cold and visa versa.

We knew the tradewinds weren't far away but nonetheless the hours went by so we decided that it would take an act of positive action to get them to come. We decided to drag the medium gennaker forward in its rain soaked bag and hoist it to the top of the mast ready for unfurling. No sooner was this done than the trades hit us under a rolling cloud and we quickly had to drop it all and stow it back whence it came. We all laughed at this typical result.

Superstitious? No, it just seems to happen that way...alot. So now here we are plunging south once again under two reefs and storm jib. It feels like we could pile on more power but the sea is still messy and there are 'potholes' everywhere. The proper foul weather gear is now being worn for the first time as the boat is now under a constant barrage of spray. We are trying out some new helmets with large 'bubble' face screens for the helmsmen/women. We like these alot already.

We believed that Geronimo was safely tucked away behind us and that she would have to come through the same set of testing conditions we just had. Imagine our suprise then when we found out that we were in fact neck and neck and at some stages almost on top of each other once again.

So we are neck and neck with Geronimo again hey? This could be an epic battle.Brian thinks he may have actually seen them on the horizon yesterday which is entirely feasible. I wonder how they are going dealing with these beam reaching conditions. The mood has changed onboard in a subtle way as none of our very competetive crew like to hold back when they think that a competitor might be sneaking away but all accept that it's a looooong way to go and that conservation can be as effective a weapon as balls-out aggression.

Paul.