Have been motoring now for the past 30 hours, no wind to speak of - this is definitely the ITCZ! The ITCZ is actually north of the equator this time of year and marks the boundary between the NE trades in the northern Pacific and the SE trades in the southern hemisphere. The ITCZ is characterized by light winds (the doldrums) and lots of squalls. I spent several hours last evening dodging some very impressive squall lines. They looked like black walls of cloud on the horizon. They move generally East to West and show up very clearly on the radar so it's fairly easy to avoid them (if you don't mind going out of your way a little). I saw some lightning in the distance and had some rain but I think I missed the worst of them (so far).
I am currently at: 03 d 41' N, 124 d 48' W, about 220 miles from the equator. (But you knew that because 1 minute of arc is 1 nautical mile at the equator). I may have passed through the worst of the ITCZ as it was predicted to be around 4 degrees North Latitude. Soon the SE trades should begin to fill in, in fact, I now have a very light wind from the SE. The seas are still pretty lumpy even though there is no wind; there are leftover swells from the NE trades and now some swells coming in from the SE trades; this is truly an eerie "No Man's Land" here in the ITCZ. I have used maybe 1/3 of my fuel reserves to get through the doldrums but hopefully will be able to sail again in the next few days.
If all holds, I should become a shellback on Tuesday and I have a party with Neptune planned for the big equator crossing! Still about 1200 miles to Hiva Oa. All is well!
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