31 1600UT Friday St Vincent 410 miles Gib 580 miles
Once again we have had a steady day covering 128 miles in our midday to
midday run. Most of this was motor-sailing although we did take a couple of
opportunities to give the old girl a much needed rest. It gave our eardrums
a break as well!
Today has been much more active. We decided to do some proactive sailing so
launched the cruising chute at 0830. The results were positive and we are
still flying it as I type. We have had to gybe but this was expected and the
wind will continue into the north giving us a very positive angle all the
way to Gib. Actually the sailing today has been really ideal with flat seas,
sun, heat and even a beer for lunch. If you could package this you would
make a bomb!
In keeping with our more active start to the day we decided to turn back the
years (decades or centuries) and get the sextant out. It was some time since
Andy has used this instrument and for me it was a first. To start with we
looked through it, found the sun and thought great - now what! It was then
out with the various books, publications and guides on board to take us
through the calculations, adjustments and help minimise the head-scratching
although I can assure you there was plenty of the latter. We also used a
computer program for some of the numbers we needed because we don't have an
appropriate almanac on board. This caused more issues than it solved because
the program took account of certain variables although we initially didn't
know which ones, how big or whether they were added or taken away!
Eventually, after a lot of discussion, judicious use of a rubber and the
occasional ' let's try that and see how it looks' we came up with a position
which, I am delighted to inform you, was not too far away from our GPS
position. Essentially, if we used it to calculate our landfall we would be
in the right area of coast within half a day of our GPS produced eta. Not
bad for a couple of part-timers I think! Don't ask for instruction though
because I'm not totally convinced we could do it again!
Finally, we were treated to a fantastic sunset last night. We truly had
sundowners - glass of wine and nibbles as well. The colours were amazing and
lasted
for a long time after the sun had gone. Not a bad place this Atlantic - if
it is behaving itself!
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