Message From Ian Deas

The surprising thing is that we are doing 10kts and we are in the dreaded doldrums. Our skipper planned to enter the doldrums where it was predicted to be at its narrowest based off the weather information received last Friday and so far it is working to plan.
It is now over 2 weeks since we left La Rochelle and we have covered nearly 3,000 miles and have about 1,300 to go. If you have been following the race progress on the Clipper website you will notice that we stayed west of the Canary Islands whereas 8 of the boats deceided to go east and were becalmed in the lee of the huge volcanoes. That has given us a great advantage to breakawy from them. Unforfortunately one other boat, Nova Scotia had the same idea and are currently 10 miles behind.
Last night as we were approaching some thunderstorms we decided to take down the spinnaker and go with the largest headsail and staysail. Just after midnight we were hit by a squall with winds of 45 kts and very heavy rain. With the full sail we had up we were way overpowered but in the dark with the boat at a precarious angle there was not much we could do. We headed into wind and after about 15 very uncomfortable minutes the squall past.
Once through the doldrums we will be in the south atlantic trade winds and hope to arrive in Salvador on Sunday.

From the mid-atlantic
Ian

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