old school Navigation
St. Pancake?..
5th January 2021A sail on the horizon.
8th January 2021old school Navigation
The trade winds have really kicked in now and Guppy is peacefully rolling her way west. About 800nm to go. On dek, Annabelle and Sista are busy learning how to play the guitar while others read in the cockpit and work on their schoolwork. The nights are becoming more clear again so we can watch the stars and the moonrise which is beautiful at night. Guppy’s spinnaker track car is still in one piece, even after some gusts of over 25knots last night, so we’re more confident now that it will continue to hold. Except for one bird and lots of seaweed we haven’t encountered anything – no sea life nor ships but not a lot of trash either. Which is good, although we did see a lot of trash washed up on the beaches in the Cape Verde. Trash that wasn’t from there but had obviously travelled thousands of miles. Sadly it’s often not about the trash that is visible but the micro plastics that float beneath the surface and become the daily diet of many sea creatures.. On the bright side, with the nice weather we have been able to take out the sextant again and I teach our young crew a bit more about old school navigation. I hope it gives them some more appreciation of the modern gps and google maps, which only takes seconds instead of hours and lots of calculating to know where you are. But I continue to find it fun and fascinating to find my way across the world using the sun and stars only. 🙂
Laura
7 Comments
Great, when you can teach Annabelle how to use a sextant! Will be a great help on our Atlantic crossing in two years.
Hi Laura and crew, thanks also for the answer to my question regarding plastic waste in the sea. You are absolutely right that the micro plastics is something caused by the “macro plastic”, but also on land simply the car tyres during driving form micro plastic. That goes at first to the ground, but can be later also washed somewehen into the sea as you cannot remove it by waste water clearing.
Very nice that you have convinced two of your female crew to learn guitar playing. How is the mathematical knowledge of your crew? I could imagine that you need the mathematical angle functions for the sextant navigation. I think if you go on such a journey over an ocean, you should be able to use a sextant as you never know, what happens to GPS or if you suddenly have a problem with power supply. For a sextant you never need electrical power, so that you are always on the safe side. Best wishes for all! Rudi
Hi Kapitän und Crew,
du kannst einen inspirieren sich mit Dingen
auseinander zu setzen und man kann dazulernen.
Ende Sommer letztes Jahr war ich mit einem Bekannten
unterwegs der mit Motorkraft zu seinem Liegeplatz fuhr,
als wir unterwegs ein Geräusch hörten, so als wenn was in
die Bilge gefallen ist, fragten wir uns was das war.
Als das Boot am Liegeplatz lag, schauten wir nach.
Es war eine dicke Mutter die sich von der Motorhalterung
durch die vibration gelöst hatte. Nun will er Feder-
Unterlegscheiben unterlegen, oder besser kontern
mit einer zweiten Mutter, vielleicht bohren und mit
einem Splint sichern. Ich wollte nur sagen du hast recht
es gibt so viel zu beachten, bevor aus einer kleinen Sache
ein großer Schaden ensteht.
Habe mal gehört dass der Seetang in der Schraube
durch rückwärts laufen lassen raus geht, hilft das ?
Und auch mit den Victron-Energy Batterien das die
mehr Ladezyklen haben wenn man die maximal 20-30 %
entlädt. Der Spinnakerbaum das man den extra gegen
fallen sichern sollte. Momentan schaue ich mir die funktion
eines Sextanten an. Wie gesagt, man kann von dir viel lernen.
Der Wind sei mit euch.
Grüße von der Waterkant.
Interessant blog weer, Laura. Bijzondere combinatie van je passie voor een 300 jaar oude techniek voor plaatsbepaling op zee en je bezorgdheid over de toenemende vervuiling van de oceanen door microplastics. En intussen zijn betogers in het Capitool op aangeven van Trump de weg kwijt… Gogogo Guppy XL.
Finding her way by the sun and the stars, / followed and adoreded by people you can trust, / watching the world by her own eyes, / Her violin music delights. … OK??? – THX and best to you all! Georg
👌👍👏
Hi Laura
It’s Wayne from White Rock, BC.
Well it looks like your vision for Guppy XL has come to be, I am so happy for you.
We missed having you onboard in 2016 from the Canary Islands to Barbados but you are doing it now, that’s so awesome Laura.
What is you Barbados eta??
Will you moor @ Bridgetown, the Shallow Draft Marina or dock @ in the Port area???
Upon arrival to Barbados in 2016 I only managed to stay 5 days but loved every minute of it. I just love Barbados & the people.
Fair winds,
Wayne