1000 miles to Tristan
Ondeck sailing
Ian Jinks
Thu 7 Jun 2007 15:23
1200 UTC 7 June
We put our clocks forward by a couple of hours last night, so we are only 3 hours behind you now. Normally i adjust them as we crossover time zones one hour at a time, but it was decided to do them two hours in one go, at a change of watch. For all you sailors out there, when we started our trip in Patagonia the magnetic variation (the difference between true North, and where the compass points) was 15 degrees east, by the time we get to Tristan it will be 24 degrees West, which is an astonishing amount of difference.
Yesterday we had constant winds from the West right up until i went to my bunk, when it changed by about 20 degrees. This caused the sea to become very confused, and so i gained little sleep during the night. Everyone has now settled into the watches, and i am looking forward to getting the last candidates through the RYA course. I have two people left to complete it, but i had to stop the one a couple of days ago because i caught him cheating on the collision regulations exam, so he has put me in a bit of a predicament. As soon as everyone is through the course, the crew will divide into 3 watches, and i will run one of them for the final run to Cape Town.
Anyway, thats all for now
Ian Jinks on Pelagic signing out