From calm to wild 30.16S 175.23W
Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Fri 1 Aug 2014 08:22
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This morning was a moment of a mental jewel, 5.17
am Venus rised to the Northeast. Not that I would have known without my
Ipad (try Starwalk if you haven't, you just hold your Ipad towards the sky and
everything visible can be revealed), but it was such a rare color and the fact
that it came over the horison made me believe we had a ship in sight. I was so
inspired by knowing what planet it was that I had to bring the sextant out in
the fresh air and see if I could take some readings. Maybe you are a little
impressed now... Yes i can take readings and actually I took 4 more when the sun
was up and I got within half degree right on the lattitude and a couple of
minutes on the longitude.
The trick is that I have an app for that... There
is an app called iZight that contains all the almanacs and does the calculation,
so IF the GPS system is shut down by some reason, you can take a reading as
longs as you have power. We carry a plastic sextant, not fancy but does the job
and is very light wich is nice when the boat is swinging in the waves.The same
manufacturer has a "bubble" meaning that you can practice at home without
horison (but you need the sun or some moon). Just make sure you half your
readings or you end up frustrated...
Could the GPS sytem fail? Well could a vulcano in
Iceland stop the flight traffic in Europe and some other parts of the world?
(You probably heard the joke since it happened soon after Iceland declared
itself almost bankrupt: A London banker exclaimed- We said cash, not
ash!)
Back to this morning, try to picture a horizon all
around you, not interupted by anything, stars, million of stars from horison to
horison. When there is no light pollution you can even see that different stars
have different color temperatures.
Light pollution, yes that is not only a problem in
cyties, even on a boat you have so many electronic instrument etc that blink and
give too much light. Many of them can be turned down but some you have to
cover.
Sailing for so many days and just see an albatross
(that came today again!) and some dolphins makes you realise how much water
there is, 75% of our planet is blue! We have a liquid landscape that can
turn from a floor this morning to 3 meter high waves tonight.
The wind has picked up from the east, from 18-22
knots and suddenly Salsa feels like a crazy train bumping in about 7 knots
to the north.
In about two hour we should break the wall of 30
Degrees South and move into the 20th.
Is it warmer yet? Well during the day, actually
before lunch I took a nap on my off watch at the foredeck, wonderful the sun was
shining but not warm enough to make me crawl out of my sailing pyjamas (you know
sailor clothes: pants that go all the way up to your ears and a jacket that goes
down to your knees). And tonight despite the thermometer showing 16 degrees C,
the chillfactor from the wind is enought to keep me dressed.
Our ETA to Tongatapu is easier to calculate since
we are heading that way now: 5th of August 5 in the morning, well that can
change many times but it gives you an idea. We have about 540 nM to go, if we
decide to move on to Hapaai we have another 90 but then we are closer to land
and can decide to stop and take a break.
Today you have two choices, either tell yourselfe
that you like what you are doing or tell yourselfe how much you hate
it.
Feel the difference it does to your mind, just by
saying that...
Thank you for reading...
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