Any luck near Freetown?

I recently got my type IX, excited to do some patrols down near freetown (I'm Dec '41 right now). Now, historically this was some good hunting for type IXs early on in the war, but I have yet to have a single kill during two extended patrols down there. In fact, I've only received one report of merchant traffic (when I moved to intercept, it was the storm of the century however and I never saw him)! WTF? Is there some secret grid that they're all passing through that I don't know about or is this pretty common for everyone?

It's a bummer because with the lack of action with my type IX so far, I'm yearning for my days of patrolling just outside britain with my VII...