L'Eau Commotion Westabout

10:00pm Wednesday 20th June 2018 ( UTC-5 )
It is now just one month since leaving Stanley and although the speed has not been very great all in all I’m quite pleased to be in the position I find myself in. It looks pretty certain I have picked up the SE Trades which have gradually increased during the day to around 18 knots. This varies of course as little showers, hardly squalls, come through which with the increase in wind tend to make the Yacht round up, that is making it go South so the sail has been reduced to one reef in the main and less than half the jib unfurled. The Hydrogenerator is powering the auto pilot and nav gear though the WindPilot could probably do the job - I’m just trying to figure out my power requirements. Looking ahead it would be best to get into the Teen Latitudes so the course is WNW. The shortest distance home is via Pitcairn and skirting the top of New Zealand but of course it’s still Winter down there. As I have been moving North the days have been getting noticeably longer although with the cool Humboldt current it has felt a little chilly when tending the ropes in the occasional very light shower. Mention was made of the starry nights and using the stars for navigation. In years past I would religiously use seven selected stars taken from Sight Reduction Tables for Air Navigation. This took quite a bit of preparation as the approximate altitude and azimuth, or direction, had to be worked out and noted for each of the seven stars. The sextant was then set at this angle and the star would then appear in the mirror usually within half or one degree in altitude. The stars are selected to make opposite pairs for a position line thus cancelling out errors of refraction and other instrument errors. I would take three sights on each star and call out Time! to Barbara who would note it and the angles neatly . I guess the whole process would take up a couple of hours but it gave great comfort when navigating through low lying atolls or reefs and I would say the accuracy was about two or three miles which is much better than you could get using a running fix with the Sun. But the GPS has replaced all this carry on and I don’t even have a sextant aboard - instead a variety of independent GPS units, some with their own batteries - and with an accuracy of two or three metres. And the news you really want - Bean & Pasta Salad, with the heated up option taken. Very Tasty.