Night watches are long and can be tedious. However we find ways to entertain ourselves. For instance last night Lorraine made bread....a lot cooler then than during the day.

For the last 2 hours I have been trying to work out which stars are which. The night has been perfect with only a new sickle moon waxing, but disappearing at about 12 o'clock. The night sky is now very different from that at home with southern hemisphere stars beginning to appear.

The sky is dominated by Orion which over the course of the last 10 hours has marched his way across the ocean from east to west. The Plough is right down on the northern horizon but still points reliably to Polaris. Cassiopeia (the flying W ) disappears over the horizon quite early in the night.

It is a very frustrating and time consuming occupation looking for stars. Once the moon has set it is very dark and there are so many stars to see it is made all the harder. The problem is that I look at the star guides and then go outside to look for a particular star or constellation. Of course I have to wait for my eyes to accommodate to the darkness. Once they have adjusted you look up and then find a cloud has obscured the piece of sky you were going to look at. The clouds are fast moving so soon they are gone, but then you try and remember the picture you looked at a few minutes earlier and have to go down below to check. Meanwhile the boat rocks and rolls in the lumpy seas kicked up by the 20 knots of wind.

One reason for wishing to identify the stars is to be able to use them for star sights to find our position. (Not that the 3 GPS systems we have on board aren't giving us positions to within a few feet all the time.) The problem then is compounded. You need to be able to see the horizon to be able to take a sight so it must be done at dusk or dawn. Of course at dusk you may be able to see one or 2 stars... but not enough others to be able to reliably identify which they are....until it is too dark to see the horizon. At dawn the problem is the opposite. You find a good star that will make a perfect sight... and then wait for the dawn to creep up. The horizon gradually appears, so out comes the sextant..... and the star is lost in the quickly brightening sky. I spent two hours going up and down the companionway steps last night engaged in this pursuit.

Consequently it is sometimes easier to stay below and write about how hard it is to identify stars.