The position is from noon UTC (GMT) today.

Let�'s see, how does this thing work? Do I use the shades or not? What is this little telescope for, it�'s too small to be of any use. And all the numbers and tick marks along the bottom. How do you read a Vernier scale?

I took an online celestial navigation class before the cruise. The purpose of the class was to learn how to use all the forms and tables to perform a sight reduction and get a fix. I practiced using the sextant about 2 times on the bay and the best position fix I achieved was it had me 20-25 miles south of my GPS fix. So here I am trying to figure out how to use the tool and get good results. I took sun sights yesterday and today with good results. Yesterday I was less than 5 miles from my GPS fix and today I was less than 2 miles. This is actually pretty good for using a plastic sextant and no previous experience. The take-away from the class was to use the sextant as a backup to the GPS and a program to perform all the table lookups and calculations. I found during the class that my work isn�'t as precise as when I was in engineering school and I make a lot of stupid mistakes. The calculator & program I bought does all the table lookups and calculations after I ente
r all the data about the sight. It will even provide the pre-sight work of identifying the best stars to use and their locations so I can find them. I still haven�'t mastered taking star sights but my sun, moon and Jupiter sights are pretty good.

Today is the first day of our voyage that we have sailed 24 hours straight. From noon yesterday to noon today we made approximately 95 miles under sail alone. Then we spent about 3 hours running the engine to recharge the batteries. All these electronic gadgets we have to make life easier afloat consume a lot of energy that must be replaced. Our solar panel and wind turbine just can�'t keep up with the load when the wind in very light.

We are currently about 60 off the coast of Morocco still heading to Agadir.