Noon Position: 22
05.8 S 173 15.0
E
Course: West sou'
west, Speed: 5 knots
Wind: South east, F3
gentle breeze
Weather: Sunny,
warm
Day's run: 112
miles
Today, with great
fanfare and ceremony, I graduated myself from Apprentice Lunarian to Novice
Lunarian. Hooray!
After much
calculation and recalculation, plotting of graphs, scratching of head, and
looking up of tables several times, I eventually came up with a solution which
has the ship's chronometer only 2 minutes and 31 seconds slow. This is still too
large an error, as 1 minute of time is the equivalent of 15 minutes of longitude
so that means an error of this magnitude would lead to an error in position of
37.5 minutes of longitude, which at the equator is near as damn it to 37.5
nautical miles. But at least it is in the ball park. And considering that one
minute of time when calculating lunar distances is the equivalent of only 0.5
minutes of arc on the sextant (that's a tiny 1/120th of one degree)
it means all my errors combined only add up to less than 1.5 minutes, which in
normal small boat celestial navigation is actually quite good.
So for now I will
be satisfied with my novice status, and it occurs to me that the novice lunarian
is perhaps a subset of that much larger group, namely advanced nerds, which is
not such a cool thing, but perhaps when you get to guru lunarian status then you
enter a whole unrealised field of being, such as old Josh seemed to be in. Some
how I do not think I will aspire to such dizzy heights. I am happy that I have
been able to understand the principles involved and realise a respectable
solution. So now what shall I do?
Last night was
rather ordinary, the wind dropped a little but as sometimes happens the seas
didn't follow, instead they got short and lumpy, Sylph rolled sharply from side
to side, the sails slatted and my nerves were frazzled. I tried altering course
to get a better angle to the seas but it didn't help and at 4 a.m. I dropped the
mainsail and rolled up half the jib to try and prevent any more wear and tear to
Sylph's gear but still make a little way. Fortunately just before midday the
wind freshened a bit, enough to keep the mainsail full, despite the rolling,
which in turn helps to dampen the roll, so we are now back under full sail
again. We are heading a little further south than I really want but this is
being dictated by the wind angle and also I believe the short seas are being
caused by the very uneven bottom topography here abouts, namely Hunter Ridge
which rises up to within 1000 meters of the surface from an ocean floor of
around 3000 meters and then drops again into the South New Hebrides Trench which
is in places over 6000 meters deep. I am hoping once we are clear of this area
then the seas may smooth out again and we may enjoy some more
tranquillity.
All is well.
