Merlyn III - Who has stolen the trade winds

This ARC will become known as the ARC without wind, specifically without the Trade Winds. These fabled winds have conveyed generations of sailors from Europe and Africa to the Caribbean. They are part of a mighty circulatory weather system covering much of the Northern Atlantic, kept in position by the Azores high. According to my North Atlantic weather routing chart there is an almost vanishingly small chance  that they will not manifest themselves at this time of year at the Latitude of the Cape Verde Islands. So what has happened to the Trades? Who is the culprit? We need to investigate.

 

There are various suspects amongst whom I would include Melissa, the citizens of the UK and Chris Tibbs. I should explain. Melissa was a serious weather system in the North West Atlantic who revealed herself in all her power before we departed Las Palmas. She was a mighty depression which transmuted into a serious North Atlantic storm with close to hurricane force winds. She rudely shoved aside our friend the Azores high and hey presto no Trades. Worse still Melisa seemed to spawn a whole series of decendants; depressions like her who interfered with the customary patterns of the wind. But you may well ask what happened to our friendly Azores high? The answer is you stole it. It migrated to the United Kingdom which explains why you had all that nice clear cold weather. However we want our High back. You may not have heard of Chris Tibbs but take my word for it he is a distinguished and experienced sailor of impeccable credentials who happens to be a leading authority on weather and weather routing.He is also the official ARC weather guru. Could he be behind the plot to eliminate the Trade Winds? There are grounds for suspicion. He promised they would be in rude heath a week ago, but still no sign of them. He had various conversations with Melissa which could be construed awkwardly for him. He told us to go South in the certainty of meeting this famed conveyor of ships and men(at 20 degrees of Latitude) but nowhere were the Trades to be found even as we headed to the equator (13 degrees Latitude). Some simple souls will claim that there is no plot and this is simply a random event which, while it may have a low probability, was always a possibility. Others will blame global warming. I am sticking with the conspiracy theory.

 

So what has our response been? Well, when it was calm (much of the time) we motored. We are now all set to achieve a First for the ARC. Yes the excitement is considerable! We will be the first yacht ever to qualify for the MOTOR SAILING DIVISION. Naturally we are very proud of this. Our sympathy goes out to all those boats which do not have the fuel supplies to compete with us, lets’ spare a thought for them as their dreams for Christmas slowly melt away.

 

Christopher.