"I'm an hour away from crossing the equator: you can't see anything because it's dark and cloudy. There's no wind and I'm waiting for it to come back! I've had a big squall and I don't have a breath of air. There was rain under the squall and behind it, not a breath... It's the first big squall I've had all night and the wind is going to pick up again, and not take too long I hope. It's the beginning of the doldrums, and I hope it won't take too long... We'll make do and will just have to be patient. I was quite surprised to get a squall so early on, but it seems that the doldrums are here! It is moving and we are going to see how it develops during the night hoping that it will not be too bad! I had to change the approach and am finally going to traverse through at 33° West. But it's quite a tricky area because once you're in it, you can't really change your route. Now things have to go well. I remain confident!

I had gone further east, but the configuration of the doldrums has changed... I couldn't see clearly how to pass further east and I see that all have passed and got through so that's why I'm trying to stay calm. You can't see much on the satellite images, it's still peculiar. You have to be lucky too and just have the right conditions on the water.

Once thorugh we should get winds from the North-East as we "climb" northwards, the wind will gradually shift to the East. It will take three to four days before we will have a transition zone on the edge of a high pressure zone, then a south-westerly flow with a low pressure system which should push us to Les Sables d'Olonne fairly quickly.”

Damien Seguin / Groupe APICIL