Daily life onboard Seraphina.
Apart from running the ship, sail her, eat and all the routine stuff we
also engage in more serious fun.
We started the day by figuring out when we would cross the Tropic of
Cancer. South of this latitude you are officially in the tropics. We had a
lengthy discussion if it would be dotted or dashed; different globes display
them differently. We were a bit disappointed when we saw nothing, just open blue
water under a blue sky. After crossing this imaginary line we suddenly
found ourselves in the tropics and sure enough the hottest day so far. We were
also lucky that Neptune does not charge for safe passage over this line.
We also needed to figure out where we are on the globe; there are no
signposts here, just water. At about 10a.m the sextant was on deck and morning
sunsight were taken, combined with a noon sight and an afternoon sight, from
which we could calculate and plot our position. This old fashion navigation aid
still works and it’s fun to keep this good tradition alive. The only modern
input is a calculator and laptop to help us calculate and plot. Another way of
establishing the latitude at local noon is by measuring the length of the shadow
of a small pole. This was also done and the sun’s altitude (how high above the
horizon) could be derived from yet another source. Ancient geometric
techniques could suddenly become handy.
While all this geek fun were going on the fishing line was suddenly
discovered to be under tension. A smaller fish (4-5 kg) were at the end of the
line. We started to pull it in, but before we could take in all the line the
fish was lost. We are constantly fishing in the hope that we’ll catch a Tuna,
Swordfish or a Marlin. We got a chart with images of them explaining where to
catch them how to eat them.
We have two major ways of communication, of which sat.phone is the modern
and just works, also as a gateway for the laptops. The old fashion
shortwave SSB radio is more fun. Trying to send email or receive weather
forecasts is a challenge over this. So far only scattered data have been
received. Hence this is an ongoing project.
Also today we discovered that it was over 29 degrees in the water, perfect
for a swim.
Best wishes from all onboard Seraphina.
Ole