Trade winds upside down, and oil prices up?

Winds should be a nice cruisy easterly 15 knots and yet we are hanging on to our big spinnakers in NNE 25 knots of wind. A big high is established over the Atlantic which should favour a westerly course and yet Telefónica Black is getting their ass kicked! So what's up?

Well in meteorological terms it is called an east wave. In practical terms it means oil prices going up soon. No idea what is going on in the world of economy, but these disturbances in the Doldrums are real oil price boosters. The little monsters are starting on the eastern side of the Doldrums in the warm and moist air coming from the African coast. Add some nice warm water, and the whole thing starts boiling and growing whilst it makes its way to the Caribbean. By the time it hits the oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico they are hurricanes with winds up to 80 knots or more. Not good for oil production.

Not being able to buy or sell shares from the boat, in our little world we just worry about what they do to the wind down here and try to use these Doldrum features to our advantage as much as we can. Actually they are just what we need as they are making our trip a whole lot faster! We have been able to go straight south instead of the much longer traditional western route. The east waves are sucking in the wind from all sides, which make the winds so much more northerly than normal. This northerly component gives us a great opportunity to first dive south and get into the stronger trades whilst at the same time giving us a good wind direction to had west to setup for the Doldrums later. All good!

In terms of strategy it is providing us with a lot of cool choices and opportunities. We are playing the wind bends around the African coast, and the funneling of the wind around the Canary Islands has been fantastic to play with. A navigators dream! Next up are the Cape Verde Islands which again will give some tactical choices. There can be some good funneling between the islands, but the waves can be nasty as well. A real brain teaser!

A first look at the Doldrums just makes my heart stop though, as they are shaping up to be quite horrible. Still a couple of days away, we will have to make our entry choice as early as tomorrow evening. Try and cross in the east and have a good wind angle to Fernando de Noronha, or take a safer route further west? It all comes down to satellite pictures, wind observations and steel balls. Best to try and get some sleep and be sharp the next couple of days. If only the guys on deck would stop pushing the boat like crazy and stop the squeaking winches, the crashing water over the deck and the heavy slamming down the waves that would be no problem at all!

Sleep well, Wouter

Wouter Verbraak - navigator.

Visit www.volvooceanrace.org for all the latest news!

The Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 will be the 10th running of this ocean marathon. Starting from Alicante in Spain, on 4 October 2008 with in-port racing, it will, for the first time, take in Cochin, India, Singapore and Qingdao, China before finishing in St Petersburg, Russia for the first time in the history of the race.

Spanning some 37,000 nautical miles, stopping at 11 ports and taking nine months to complete, the Volvo Ocean Race is the world's premier yacht race for professional racing crews.