One thing that we are doing for the race is understanding navigation and currents. We have to take two currents in the race..one current heading south and the other heading west...

What will help us is called the NEC (the North Equatorial Current). The current originates from the northwestern coast of Africa, where it is fed mainly by the cooler waters flowing from the northeast Atlantic. As the NEC travels across the open ocean, it is joined by waters originating south of the equator thus entraining waters from the Southern Atlantic into the Northern Atlantic...

read more about the ocean current