31:24.059N 012:00.83W

Yet another lovely day. Overnight the wind was NE 18 – 22 Knots and this allowed us to sail for about 12 hours at between 6 and 7 knots. Great to have the peace of sailing and the saving of fuel so we have more reserves in the tank!

However, the wind has now dropped again and is forecast to be light NE for the rest of our trip so we are under power again with the bimini up to protect us from the sun. The bimini is a large blue canvas sunshade supported on stainless steel frames which shades the whole cockpit. It cannot be used with the mainsail in operation since the mainsheet needs to work in the same space. However, when we use the Parasailor in the ARC, the mains’l will mostly be tied out of the way so the bimini will be useable!

Tim and Mike L are just having a second crack at the Noon Sight today, this time better prepared.

They reckon the sun reached its zenith at 14:46 local time – 50 minutes and 12 seconds after true noon at Greenwich. You may recall the Longitude film / book which was about the quest for an accurate marine chronometer for precisely this measurement. Tim’s super watch uses radio signals to synchronise its time! Our sight places us at 31:27.22N 012:33W compared with our GPS calculated position: 31:24.059N 012:00.83W.

This means we are accurate to 3.2 miles latitude and about 27 miles longitude, not too bad a start – but room for improvement particularly on the longitude!

Jamaica ginger cake for tea…