I fully realize that the Trades outside the ITCZ as well the the South and North Equatorial currents will be head-on crossing to Cape Verdes; then the adverse
Canaries Current will slow things down when making for the Azores. But the Cap't seems set on this route because he dislikes the Antilles ambiance enough to want to avoid the
Caribbean (he's been circumnavigating from
Germany in stages for ten years now). He carefully consults the Pilot
Charts, so he must know something I don't. Perhaps he's hoping for a small push from the Romanche Gap approximately 20 degrees West at the Equator.
I sailed double-handed with him last
winter from S.
Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope, up to Walvis Bay, Namibia, across to St. Helena and then to Salvador where he has now temporarily parked his
boat until the next leg. That was largely a downhill milk run, even along the SW African coast where they had the worst
weather in 20 years and the cold, foggy Benguela
Current chilled us to the bone--although it did help boost us in the right direction.
I suspect the next leg will be a slow and unpredictable slog. The 440-litre
water tank">fresh
water tank and the equivalently size
diesel tank will both be challenged for refills from his jerry cans before we can re-provision anywhere. No
watermaker. He's good at catching rainwater, though.