"Your world shrinks to this tiny, sweltering box."
That is the description of being in the Doldrums by Irish competitor Jakub Ziemkiewicz on BIBI, outlining the psychological toll of the slowest part of the McIntyre 580 round-the-world race in the 19-foot plywood self-built yachts.
He told race headquarters, as he is struggling slowly in little wind towards the Marquesas Islands stopover, "In the doldrums, your world shrinks to this tiny, sweltering box. The boat doesn’t move, your skin erupts in rashes, and time stretches endlessly.”
Ziemkiewicz resorted to garlic poultices to treat festering saltwater sores, a remedy learned from his grandmother.
Jakub Ziemkiewicz on BIBI In the doldrums
McIntyre Race HQ says most of the small boats have been averaging 126-mile days on a historically slow Panama/Marquesas passage of 4300 miles, averaging 5.25 kts for 34 days.
Race leaders have begun to reach the Marquesas.
