"We came across the equator into the northeast trades, which are the southeastern quadrant of a high pressure system sitting in the mid-atlantic. All the boats ahead followed generally the same route to the NNW until getting to the high, wherever it was variously situated when they got there, to wrap around the clockwise rotating high and get favorable winds toward France. The problem was that the high was dissipating and when we got to the north side, where there should be wind to push us from behind toward France, there was none, because the high dissolved. An alternative is that sometimes a low pressure system rotating counterclockwise, will come out of the US and track east and northeast across the Atlantic, and drag its fronts, most powerfully its cold front, across the atlantic, and you can jump onto this and get pulled across becuase the winds behind the front will be NW which you can use to get to the NE. And there was a front, from a low sitting up by Iceland, but the front wasn't moving, and had no real potency in it. So when we wrapped around, we sailed at one point, point to point 350 miles in 4 days. This is horrible and we lost 650 miles toward France because of this no wind in a dissipating high. So what to do? Ah, here comes another high, but the problem is, its coming out of Canada and moving east across the northern north Atlantic, so again, its generating northeast winds in its southeast quadrant. So basically, we turn north again, but we will have to sail an extra 600 miles north to get to its path. So we dutifully head north, into essentially another set of northeast trade winds in the southeast quadrant of this new high. So we clobber ourselves yet again sailing into our own private norhteast trades, storm jib and 3 reefs in the main, heading mostly NNW, perpendicular to the course to France, to try to intercept this new high. So today what does the weather file say? Basically that the high will come across, center itself on our longitude, and stop for 24 hours, and expand. Now yesterday the high was forecast to be a 1035 millibar high. That is a high high! But today what is going to happen? It will stop in front of us, and expand into a 1042 millibar high. Who ever even heard of a 1042 mb high? I didn't know they could go that high. I've heard of 1023, or 1027, maybe even a 1032 mb high, but 1042mb? There might be no wind for hundreds of miles in every direction. So what can we do? We have to turn left by 45 degrees to try to go around it to the west, so that is why we're heading for Newfoundland, again. We can't get across in front of it, because we won't be far enough north when it arrives, and then when it eventually does start to move a bit, we would be smothered. So here we go again, stymied again. Who ever heard of a 1042mb high? It's laughable if it wasn't so painful. It will be likely 1 1/2 days to get across to get to the favorable winds, so another couple of days lost. Hopefully after that, we can ride the westerlies to France."
Rich Wilson (Great American III) in his daily message
