If you haven't heard of Randall he's my fellow Californian who is sailing around the world via a Figure 8. What like a knot or some other obscure thing, Joe?
Nope, see the pic above.
Randall is a badass. While we are hiding in our secure world of apps and Instacart (they are not a sponsor) Randall is sailing around the world looping the Americas and Antartica. He's the first guy to undertake this momentous task.
Why the hell would anyone do this? He must be crazy or a badass. I'll go with badass since the crazies are roaming the streets of San Francisco and don't resemble Randall in the least.
Ah, maybe crazy?
I love the Horse Latitudes (gotta love that name), it's the perfect place to kayak or row. Sailing there, more like floating, is an entirely different experience. Hint, you better have a good engine and plenty of fuel.
Mind you, you can always throw your tender in the water and row pulling your boat along. Think Charleston Heston in Ben-Hur.
Sorry Randall, as a rower also I went off in a tangent. Back to the story.
The horse latitudes are located at about 30 degrees north and south of the equator. It is common in this region of the subtropics for winds to diverge and either flow toward the poles (known as the prevailing westerlies) or toward the equator (known as the trade winds). These diverging winds are the result of an area of high pressure, which is characterized by calm winds, sunny skies, and little or no precipitation.
According to legend, the term comes from ships sailing to the New World that would often become stalled for days or even weeks when they encountered areas of high pressure and calm winds. Many of these ships carried horses to the Americas as part of their cargo. Unable to sail and resupply due to lack of wind, crews often ran out of drinking water. To conserve scarce water, sailors on these ships would sometimes throw the horses they were transporting overboard. Thus, the phrase 'horse latitudes' was born.
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