02.55N 085.24W

JENNY
Alan Franklin/ Lynne Gane
Mon 11 Feb 2008 07:12
Good Morning to you all
 
I can remember when I first started sailing ,crossing the English Channel was a big adventure, in those days it use to amaze me that you can go out of sight of land and with no land marks navigate to another place,we did not have the technology of GPS (Global Positioning Satellite ) navigation that we have today.It was done using a compass for direction and the boats log for speed (its called a log because in the real old days the seamen used to cast a line overboard with a piece of wood tied to the end and measure the length of the string being let out which was calibrated by knots tied in at specific lengths over a given time.hence Log and Knots) there of course other variables affecting our course such as wind,tide,and magnetic variation that were needed to be taken into account sounds complicated doesn't it but you get use to the calculations
there were of course electronic aids like Decca and radio locator beacons,Decca use to go walkabouts at various places and the beacons you could at times be sitting on it and not get a signal so all in all it was in many respects more fun and more demanding than today.But the weather is still as fickle and you still have to know how to sail how much sail to have up,when you can push the boat and when to ease back maintain the complicated systems and the crew (especially the wife) and know all the rules of sailing and have developed a knowing.
 
Nowadays there are more of us ordinary sailors sailing l faster and further in larger boats than the sailors of 20 years ago but we still face the same challenges mainly weather and sea,I was looking today at the ocean (there's not much else out here ) amazed at the vastness of it just as the fishing line went into a frenzy of activity and a large fish with a spiky nose jumped out of the water.Crikey was the word that came to mind (immortalised by the late Steve Irwin ) how are we going to manage that ,at the same time wondering what it was going to taste like well I needn't have bothered because with an indignant shake of its head it was out of the hook and gone.
 
A quick pause for a lookout and to alter the mainsail setting, I am on watch you know.
 
After the fish that got away with one of our lures (the thing on the end of the line that attracts the fish )in our case we use Muppets they look like a squib to other fish they are dirt cheap (they need to be the rate that we lose them ) and they work.I taught Ellie how to make them up which she did and we are now back in the fish catching business.
 
Anyway as you can tell from my ramblings today was pretty uneventful saw our first ship for two days nearly caught a fish the generator and watermaker worked, that's always good news,we can now all have showers for the first time in three days so the boat is going to smell a lot better and we had s stowaway last night in the form of a booby who left his calling card all over the boat ,that's the last of the house guests.
 
Its now 0200 on the 11/02/08  we are 342nm from the Galapagos and its time I was back on watch