Finally, we realized what we were fighting with so desperately. If something fails, read the manual. We took the book and read it. As it turned out, there’s a strong Peruvian current that rises along the South America and then turns west along the equator. Its small arm rushes directly to the Gulf of Panama, right towards us. Well, it is small indeed, but I nearly got the feeling of yacht inferiority with it. I was doing everything right, the sails are set up ideally even for participating in a race, but the boat failed to go. It felt as if it got stuck in some kind of jelly. After I read the book, I felt much better. I thought I forgot how to sail, but I didn’t, the Peruvian current appeared to be a serious rival. Few people fought against it.

In general, it is useful and interesting to read the right books. We found out that interesting things happen with this current. For instance, what do you think the climate on our planet depends on? Why are there cycles? Why are winters now warm and now cold or summers now rainy and now hot? And why does this recur approximately every 5-7 years? The matter is that once in 5-7 years the Pacific turns inside out. Yes-yes, that’s exactly how it is. Nobody knows why this happens. I think it just gets tired of lying flat and it turns over.

Old man Francisco Pisarro gave name to this Phenomenon (spelled with the capital letter for it is a planet-wide Phenomenon). He was a Spanish conquistador, as usual. It was in 1532: he wanted badly to plunder the Incas for he was told the Empire had too much gold. Everything could have been great but for the fact that he couldn’t get to Panama from Peru. The jungle hindered him on land and the current at sea. Just like us. Pisarro made his first attempt. The vessels failed as the current kept bringing them to Panama. He made the second attempt. The same story. One day they noticed that the flow turned in the opposite direction! And they sailed and took away all the gold from the Indians and the ruined the Empire. Of course, they decided it was providence and called this Phenomenon El Niño (translated from Spanish as Holy Child or Christ Child). Since then, it is known that, with a certain frequency, all currents in the Pacific change, cold waters rise from the depth and warm ones are engulfed in the depth. To make a long story short, the largest citizen of the planet turns to the other side. And this shakes the entire planet.