Sunday 11^th January 2009

MOONLIGHTING

When I awoke this morning, I idly read through the ship?s logbook to read the entries from last night.  The logbook is a navigation notebook.  The information it contains enables us to navigate safely to our destination in the event of a total failure of all navigation equipment, by reference to the previous entries.  Such entries include: course steered, log reading, wind, barometer, sea state, current, the boat?s position, etc and of course any additional entries you consider relevant.  We complete the log every 2 ? 4 hours.

Last nights entries read:

00:00 hours: ?Quiet moonlit night?

02:00 hours: ?Sailing in the moonlight?

04:05 hours: ?Incredibly light night sky?

05:30 hours: ?Bright moonlit night?

These entries were completed by each of the crew at the end of their night watch, which lasts 2 hours.  I guess one can conclude that the moon had a huge impact on each of us last night as it trailed across the sky, its light occasionally muffled by a dark cloud but generally lighting the sky to such an extent it felt like daytime.  As to whether this information would assist us should there be a total failure of all navigation equipment, I just don?t know.  I guess we?ll just have to look at the moon for the answer!

The only other noteworthy aspect of our otherwise unremarkable day is that a catamaran called Privateer, overtook us.  She whizzed passed us with her gennaker up (that?s a cross between a genoa and a spinnaker); she?s a light boat so the light winds suited her.  We on the other hand weigh 20 tonnes, 8 of which is lead in the keel.  In addition a catamaran, with her two hulls, is more stable with this southwesterly swell, which has deterred us from flying the spinnaker.  I attempted to call them up on the VHF radio on a number of occasions and finally they responded.  They are participating in the Cape Bahia race and this is their first ocean crossing.  We agreed to meet up in a pub in St Helena at the end of the week ? we hope to arrive Thursday morning - but were a little perturbed to see them gliding ahead of us with such ease!

Position @ 0700 UTC 20.33S 01.05E