Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
then? No document exists detailing Magellan's plans for the home-
ward leg of the journey but there is no reason to suppose that he in-
tended anything other than to return along his outward route. Fail-
ing that, his first contingency plan must have been to make for a safe
haven on the coast of Panama. (One of the surviving ships attemp-
ted this, as we shall see.) To risk his cargo, his ships and his life by
trespassing in the waters consigned to the Portuguese, who would
probably by then have been waiting for him, would have been very
foolhardy.
Six days sailing brought the fleet to the Spanish Canary Islands
where Magellan completed the provisioning of his ships. Leaving
Tenerife on 3 October the captain general set his course southwards
along the coast of Africa, making use of winds and currents by now
well known to Portuguese navigators. Then, presumably trying for
the SE trade winds to carry him across the Atlantic narrows to Brazil,
he hit the Doldrums. For two weeks his ships wallowed on oily seas
and his men endured the morale-sapping humidity which caused
even the lightest task to bring them out in a sweat. On a small, claus-
trophobic, sailing craft being becalmed is worse than being storm-
tossed. As a twentieth century yachtsman observed, there is little to
do but lie around listlessly and brood:
We appear to be well and truly in the doldrums. It's oppressively
hot and we're hardly moving. I went on deck before breakfast to try
and dry off the sweat before getting hot again, eating breakfast . . . By
supper time the great heat was slightly less. I'm thankful I suggested
that John and I would wash up each evening after supper. The galley
is a hell hole during daytime . . . An oppressive night. I lay bathed in
sweat in the saloon, trying hard to slow my pulse rate. Between the
hour from four to five we covered one-tenth of a mile. 'Will we ever get
out of these doldrums?' I heard muttered in the thick darkness . 5
 
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