….or the ITCZ, how it is called correctly (I leave it to you to look that up if you’re interested) is an area just North or around the equator, which is known for low or no winds. In the old days, ships often got stuck there for days or weeks not moving at all – which might have been a major issues. This also happened to boats in previous Clipper Races and therefore since the last race, Clipper introduced some special rules which require boats to pass the doldrums in a special corridor and allows teams to use the engine for a certain time and distance – which can become a tactical game in itself.

For us the doldrum allowed for something less ordinary – we met up with one of our fellow boats (Unicef), as they had a spare part for our generator we (thought) we needed. So we had a little exchange of spare parts against ice lollies and some other goodies we gave them in exchange. However, I think for both crews a best treat was just to see some other people and another boat up close. Since getting out of the Irish Sea, we have not really seen anyone else closer than maybe 3 or 4 miles and now we were in yelling distance. So when the boats started drifting away from each other again, I think both crew silently looked as the other boat got smaller and smaller and finally disappeared over the horizon.