The “parting of the blue goo” is reminiscent of the biblical “parting of the red sea”. In the
Sailonline (SOL) virtual race”blue goo” is any area of light and variable winds or even no wind as that is how the winds are displayed.
The SOL fleet has been split in two with leaders having had a dream run through The Doldrums, but anyone who was a bit off the pace or had an extended BBQ on an island has found themselves stuck in the “blue goo” of The Doldrums.
The lead group is passing the IRL (In Real Life) yacht Morning Star and is now in a drag race to the finish. The main problem for the leaders now is keeping up the concentration and avoiding a BBQ on those little islands that seem to pop up out of nowhere in the middle of the night. None of us wants to experience a Vestas moment even if it is just a virtual one.
For the second group The Doldrums has them going in all sorts of directions. IRL competitors The Edge, Allegro, Bartolome and Chinese Whisper are amongst this group. Hopefully they are finding and working all those little local wind patterns that no one can really predict. The main difference in SOL is that once every six hours we get a weather update GRIB and that is precisely how our weather behaves for the next six hours.
In SOL we can see the IRL fleet overlaid as bold-gold coloured boats most of which we can see making their way up towards Bougainville. Hopefully the blue goo will part again for them at the right time.
