Thursday 24th  October 201.  Indian Ocean,  14.25.9S 87.30.0E  

Today's Blog by David (Time zone UTC +6.0; BST +.5.0)

Often when we leave somewhere after a few days stopover, we have the opportunity to catch up on the Blog, to post the photos we have taken and to describe what we got up to. However, landscape photos of idyllic anchorages don’t really do justice to our experiences of Cocos Keeling,  there are only so many photos one can post of beach parties (and Richard has covered those) and wild life photos require the observation of wild life.  So apart from this photo of a white tipped shark upon whom we chanced when snorkelling -

… no photos this time.

We left Cocos Keeling early on Monday. We needed to average about 8 knots to cover the 2, 300 miles  to Mauritius in time to allow:

1                     Richard to catch his flight home to his family and

2                     David to be in Mauritius when his Simone, Kate, Nathan and the kids arrive.

HOWEVER …… the wind was lighter than we hoped and was from dead aft, so progress was initially slow.  We eventually  hoisted the Code Zero around lunchtime and that remained hoisted until the halyard parted and dumped the whole rig into the sea just about on the 23.00 watch change. It was 90 minutes before a tired and grumpy crew got back to bed.  When we woke the winds were still light and we discussed whether – and if so how – a new halyard could be deployed (we do have a spare) but concluded that all things considered (the sea state, the wind, the capacity and willingness among the crew etc.) we would live without it for the remainder of the passage  and then settled down to the normal shipboard routine that is to be ours until early next month.

Whether we will get to Mauritius for our appointments, it is hard to say.  It looked out of the question on Tuesday morning, but the wind has now filled in a little and there is a sporting chance we will get there in time. We will have a much clearer idea next week but for now, if pressed,  I might venture a modest stake at long odds – but no more than that.

Now, while at sea, shipboard life includes an element of routine: the tedium of breakfast coffee, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner and your watch (each three of four hours long with between nine and twelve house between)  is broken by reading, puzzles. games ….. and for now, at least,  repeated  Master Classes in Astronavigation.  We do find some amusement in these routines.  

The Astronavigation is superintended by Richard wielding my trusty sextant of 20 years or so.  It is suffused with a frisson of incredulity.  The initial planning is usually the subject of hot debate between Richard, armed with all the books and texts,  and Peter whose grasp of spherical geometry renders reference to books pretty much unnecessary – for him at least.  The taking of sights itself is mildly amusing as observers compare the apparently random observed altitudes attested to by Richard  against their belief that these values should form an orderly and smooth progression -  either up or down.  But it is the subsequent reduction of these observations through a series of calculations to individual position lines on a paper chart which are then through some arcane sophistry to be moved such they then intersect at a single point – or perhaps more realistically triangular or quadrilateral intersection in the shape of a “cocked hat” – one that defines our actual position at the time of the sight -  that is the source of most merriment.  

And, what incredulity would arise, were the results of those painstaking calculations to produce a cocked hat, sufficiently small to be said to define any useful, measurable estimate of the ship’s  position at the same time as placing us within 1,000 miles of our actual GPS position!  

Last night,  Richard planned his Coup de Grace – a Star sight. This routine  operation provides possibly the most accurate fix using Astronavigation – the planning of it involved Richard and David producing separate and wildly different calculations each of  whose errors of principle then being Illuminated by a sense check with the Sage of the  Sphere. The eventual accuracy of our planning notwithstanding, there was no chart on the boat large enough for Richard  to plot the results of his  ensuing calculations leading me to speculate that that particular cocked hat might be of astronomical rather than of Oceanic or even planetary  proportions!  Ah well, back to the drawing board.

Another source of amusement has arisen in the casual rivalry  that has broken out in the  Culinary Arena. Each of us makes lunch and dinner in turn and it seems each seeks to better the repast of the last. It is in the lunch area that this is most clearly manifested.  Our provisioning was predicated on a relatively modest lunch each day normally based around a filled tortilla or corn wrap.  However, there are only so many ways that a wrap can be prepared and sooner or later one of us goes ‘off piste’, dispenses with the wrap and breaks new ground. Once the race is started the ante is raised until a truce is declared – as happened today, having each been served an omelette big enough for two inside a bread sandwich itself sufficient for two. 

Tomorrow the clock is reset to a single wrap, a single slice of ham and a little salad; eventually the truce will be called off and who knows where things will end if e’re we arrive in Mauritius!

Oh what Wrapture!