Exact coordinates were 16°55.258N 061°50.455W on departure from the Antigua Falmouth Harbour Marina. After crossing the Caribbean Sea pretty much diagonally, we ended up 8.5 longitude degrees further west (070°00.889N) and 4 latitude degrees closer to the Equator (12°18.758N) in Aruba. Doing a hockey stick to Bonaire at 12°10.043N and 068°23.972W.
Our diagonal crossing of the Sea was very straight forward: keep a 260° as we exit Antigua - this should mean we have Montserrat at Starboard and Guadeloupe on Port soon after. If not, tell the captain! And then, its 220° pretty much all the way down to Bonaire. Simple. The Bonaire to Aruba route has a massive obstacle in the way (Curacao - the 3rd Netherlands Caribbean island) which meant a legged journey shifting direction several times. Once Curacao was behind us, we had to go back to our usual 220° until we got to a point where a 330° back up was needed to enter the Island of Antigua.
Whilst the course seems relatively simple in the case of Leg 4, this is not as easy as drawing a straight line between 2 islands. The chosen course is the result of a close analysis of the area using navigational charts. And then, once the course has been set, starts a long and regular assessment of our progress against it and constant reassessment of it. Are we on the right track, do we need to change the course, are there any elements that will affect our journey?
This tracking of our journey using the various tools available to us fascinated me throughout...
1) In the chart room
There was a lot of information and data in the Captain’s ‘office’ -a dark, steaming hot, tiny room (and lit up red at night similarily to those windows just around the corner from Amsterdam train station) which must have been fitted by an Ikea designer, as soooo much stuff was stored there: charts, tools for mechanical and other repairs, navigation screens (Navionics) and other measurement equipment, books, emergency medical kit (including what is required to do on-the-water surgery as was the case when the pole fell on Maggie’s head), radios and other means of (distress and not so much so) communication and the all important GRAB BAG (what the captain will take with her as a priority in case of the ship being abandoned which has the basics for survival - not sure for how long?).
After hearing the words “Anyone done the log book yet?” every hour 24 times on the first day, it becomes ingrained in every member of the crew to perform this all important task. We would religiously check coordinates hourly on the hour on the navigation computer in that room. It would be logged into the log book, alongside a little comment for the next logger to read in one hour (or for the Captain to read at some point during her 2 years at sea !).
Like this we could track progress of our journey and potentially adjust the course as well as track the all important other aspects of our navigation - the state of the sea, the weather, the wind and the boat metrics such as COG, SOG ...still not 100% about what those are?
2) In the sky (Night)
Celestial navigation was not part of this learning adventure. I can imagine how it would be an interesting part of sailing and must take note of getting round to doing this at some point. In the meantime, I just LOVED seeing the moon, the stars, the milkyway and the shooting stars during our nightwatches.
I found -as most of us on board did- that helming at night was much easier by pointing a fixed part of the boat (the mast, the corner of one of the sails, a spot on a shroud, a spreader) at a specific star or at the moon. Navigating South-West most of the time, building towards its full status, the moon was often ahead of us ; but more often than not, it was a specific star (alone or as part of a formation) that was picked as giving us the perfect course - instructions were to follow a course, ie 220 degrees - so you had to point the boat to the correct degree using the compas, then look up and hook onto whichever seems a sensible fixed point on the boat against a point in the sky. Then, as the wind and waves push the boat to change its course, you simply have to keep these 2 points in your line of sight. Easy peasy!
3) Compass at the helm (Day)
Navigation when at the helm is made easy thanks to the compass and the Raymarine screen at the centre of the wheel.
And there is a 4th navigation method which can’t be thaught. Sailing by ‘feeling’ or ‘intuition’ is definitelly something that I did not yet experience and will take many more hours at sea to achieve. This is when you unconsciously notice a small shift somewhere to know you are starting to move off course....
There was a moment where I witnessed Anna doing just that. Chatting on deck during the day, seemingly not paying too much attention to what I was doing at the helm of her ship. Relaxed, soaking the wind and the sun and enjoying the company, she suddenly says "Which course are you on?”, I check the compas and realise that I was oblivious to having moved off my course by no more than 10 degrees (I was heading to around 320 instead of 330) without noticing. She had no tool at her disposal to view my course and I assume she could just feel it, perhaps using the movement of the boat and how it was cutting through waves ; perhaps the wind in her hair or on her face ; perhaps a little crease somewhere on one of the sails ; perhaps she just knew.... I responded "Going back to 330 now" and she gave me an understanding smile. We both knew I deviated, nothing else needed to be said (but the navigation screen forever holds my little deviation stored somewhere).
Latitude and Longitude:
The space between each line of latitude and longitude is divided into one degree. 16°N, 61°W is broadly Antigua.
For more specific points of latitude and longitude, coordinates can be written by further dividing a degree into minutes. There are 60 even minutes separating each line of latitude and longitude. An apostrophe is used to indicate the number of minutes between lines.
So now, we have 16°55’N, 61°50’W. This is still Antigua, but is more precisely that.
Minutes are further divided into intervals of seconds. There are 60 seconds between each minute (using “).
Some maps identify minutes followed by decimal points rather than minutes followed by seconds. This was the case for my trip with eXXpedition. In this case, the co-ordinates are obtained by minutes broken down into decimals (using .) for each line of latitude and longitude. Getting very very precise now with16°55.258N 61°50.455W.
All this is very technical, very precise, quite mathematical and when taking 14 women on a boat nothing can be loose, taken lightly or for granted. There was however this one time, when a clear degree instruction took a very poetic turn - this will undoubtably be the subject of one of my blogs one day ; for now, it is staying deep inside me to keep cherishing and enjoying.