Where are the tradewinds? The unusually light winds we're experiencing continue to blow directly from where we want to go. A large high pressure system has been sitting north of us for several days blocking the easterly tradewinds from their normal pattern. The best we can do is sail at the closest angle we can to still make forward progress. Catamarans do not sail into the wind well. The general limit is 60 degrees off the wind, though we're pinching out 45 with the sails as tight as they'll go. With wind coming from the southeast, one tack puts us heading beyond south, the other just above east. While we could motor directly into the wind it's also slow and we need to conserve what fuel we have left. My judgement is the south tack is best right now though it's almost a coin toss. The high pressure system is supposed to move away and the winds shift back to their normal pattern soon. piloting tonight I'm watching for the subtle shifts but currently the wind is just dying down. If it gets much weaker I'll need to pull in the headsail and start the engine burning more precious fuel. Not the best of sailing right now. Time to go tweak our heading and try to maintain speed.