![]() ![]() Though, of course, there are other ways as well. Growing up on the East Coast, I suffered through the August doldrums - windless days of heat and misery, where to even move was an agony, relieved only by the autumn cooling and the storms of September, hurricanes included.īut here in Southern California, our doldrums last far longer, as does our summer - well into September and even October, the hottest months of the year, when our lethargy is broken only by the distant smoke of wildfires, which is an awful way to break out of those doldrums. It often was a death sentence for the sailors of old, described elegantly in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”: “Day after day, day after day/We stuck, nor breath nor motion/As idle as a painted ship/Upon a painted ocean/Water, water, everywhere/And all the boards did shrink/Water, water, everywhere/Nor any drop to drink…” ![]() They were caught, unable to move, with their water running short, and their food running low. That’s the zone near the Equator, where the northeast and southeast trade winds converge, canceling each other out - leaving a region with no wind, where sailing ships would become trapped in what’s also known as “the calms.” “Doldrums” - it’s a wonderful word, born as the sailor’s jargon for what’s technically known as the Intertropical Convergence Zone. ![]()
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