"Bryan" wrote in message
et...
I've never experienced an absence of wind where I didn't have an
auxilliary (sp?), you know, a motor, to fall back on; I've only read of
the scenario.

What is the longest dead calm you've experienced? Were you relaxed, you
know, calm, about it? How long did it take before it started to get to
you, if at all?

If not you, what is the longest dead calm our sailing author's have
experienced and lived to tell?

Sailing from Sydney Australia to Auckland New Zealand in 1949 after '48
Transtasman race (NZ to Aussie)
Tasman normally one of roughest seas in world.
5 full days becalmed halfway across - did 50 miles in 5 days, and worst
day's run was MINUS 2.
Engine was defunct . Total 1250 miles took 22 days - probably record slowest
crossing for boats not dismasted or similar. Enough food on board - and
proved that water usage can be as little as one third of a (imperial)
gallon - about 1.5 litres - per man per day.
Boat was 30 foot solid (and slow) double ender - Colin Archer type.
Big shark - about half boat length - right alongside, so no swimming!

Irony was that we were returning after the race in which we encountered a
cyclone and weathered 110 knot winds - proved by the anenometer on Lord Howe
Island - we were about 50 miles from Lrd Howe, and the centre of the
cyclone passed between us and island. The graph shows wind going off the
chart at 111 knots, and then dropping to flat calm. No, it wasn't the eye of
the cyclone- just the mast on the weather station blowing down.
We rolled about 135 degrees (one boat in the race rolled 360 and survived).
At the height of the blow I promised God that if we survived I would never
complain about being becalmed again - and HE must have heard me !!!
Terry