Day 5 – Should I Go or Should I Stay?…

Donald called late this morning to say he’d spent most of the past 24 hours working on his battery issue.  They aren’t charging quickly enough, making his Efoy, the backup generator, an important alternative.  Despite trying everything, the Efoy simply isn’t working, which is a worry because he intentionally brought less fuel knowing he had it as a backup.  He still has the solar panels and “it really will just come down to sunshine at this point.” Fortunately, he can stop at the Azores or the Canary Islands if necessary.   Donald said he’d been working so much on mechanical issues that he wasn’t able to really concentrate on sailing, but during the punishing westerlies in the first third of the race, most of the skippers are dealing with one thing or the other, and in the over 2,800 nautical miles to go, positions will undoubtedly change back and forth.  Attached is the video he sent of a recent squall:

Surfing the Squall

Donald’s now focusing on weather routing.  He said it’s very complicated.  There’s a big cold front coming this evening and the cautious route is to continue heading south, but, like the other skippers, Donald’s more than worn down from five days of pounding upwind.  If he heads west and “takes it on the nose,” it will take about six hours to get to the other side, which would get him into much more fun sailing.  As we were on the phone, he was scanning his charts and running the calculations.  It sounded like the newer predictions indicated that the actual gusts might be tamer than the 50 knots originally projected, and he was seriously considering whether he was up for six hours of punishment to save him an extra 12 hours of the still punishing, but more conservative route.  I think the battery issue might play a part in the decision as well.    This conversation was several hours ago, and I see that he’s still headed south, so maybe prudence won the day.  Donald’s now in 32^nd place, pretty much holding his own.  The past few days have been eventful and today, another boat capsized, so if Donald “stays afloat,” all is well.

Donald’s parting words: “This trip is a little short on fun!”  (He said the same thing at this stage on the last RdR.  When he hits the trade winds and the sunshine, his spirits will soar!) Stay tuned….

Just as I published this, I got an update from Donald. And the answer is… stay. “I’ve decided to make the transition at first light tomorrow. Getting some rest in the meantime.” Phew…his wife sleeps better tonight.

Soil education of the day:  A very timely article from yesterday’s Reuter’s. 

“Dying Lands: Farmers Fight to Save the Skin of the Earth”

https://www.reuters.com/business/cop/dying-lands-farmers-fight-save-skin-earth-2022-11-12/

The article says it can take 1,000 years to make 2-3 cm of soil, thus preservation is critical.   Land degradation means the ability of soil to sustain plant life and by extension human and animal life.  One-third of the world’s total land area is already degraded by erosion, nutrient depletion or in other ways, and soils could regenerate if farmers applied better methods (such as no till and cover crops) more broadly. 

And, as always, as a real life example of soil erosion, remember Donald’s village in South Africa and it’s devasting floods and mudslides this spring at https://remember-umdloti.org/