It started with a massive sleep, almost a whole five hours, which was much needed after yesterday’s adventures. I got up shortly before noon, armed with sextant, watch notebook and pencil and I’m off out on the deck on my quest to establish our noon latitude. I’m getting closer, within 18 miles of GPS today, […]
Author: carreybeayn
Day 3, Batteries, spreaders, dolphins
It is 0000 on 2 November, I have the 0000 to 0400 watch. It was quite a chilly night, at least chilly enough for a jumper and a duvet while I lay in the comfort of the cushions on the top deck, staring at the moon and the stars, I’m in heaven. And to top […]
Noon is not at noon
It turns out that during the day a sailor has only one real chance at confirming the ship’s latitude, this happens at noon each day. When the Sun is at her highest point in the sky we can take our sextant, measure the angle between the Sun and the horizon and after applying some maths […]
Day 2. Wind, waves, spin, sway
It is midday on 1st Nov, our second day on the ocean and I have just had another attempt at a noon sight. We have been averaging 6 – 8 knots so far, although our heading is closer to south than south west, since with our swept back rig and total absence of any kind […]
Sun, stars, sextant, three tons of books
Needless to say that by the time the end of October appeared out of nowhere I hadn’t really scratched the surface of the online course and my understanding of this vast subject was very close to nil. So equipped with an old plastic sextant, that had been donated to me several years ago, a […]
“Now bring me that horizon”
31 October Up anchor and I’m at the helm again, it is 0800 and we’re headed for the fuel dock in Las Palmas marina. “Do you want your boat back skipper?” I ask on the way in to the marina. “Erm….. no, it’s alright….. can you just drive us on to the fuel dock?” FFS… […]
“Some days you’re the driver”
We left the dock at around midday Saturday 28 October to sail the 80 miles to Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. Getting the boat out of the berth at Fuerteventura was not exactly pretty, our skipper being a monohull man hasn’t quite mastered the finer points of two engines yet, nor will we mention the dockline. […]
Off we go into the wild blue yonder
Back in August I had a winter job to go to with a yacht charter company in the BVI and a thirst for another Atlantic crossing, the last one being 15 years ago. I signed up to join a catamaran that was bound from La Rochelle to the BVIs and leaving the Canaries in early […]