6/16
Hello from off the beautiful coast of southern Spain! We
are very close to Malaga, cruising at a slow speed back towards the straits of
Gibraltar, where we’ll be “bunkering” (taking on fuel) for the next few days.
I’ve just had the pleasure of visiting the evening watch,
where 2nd and 3rd class cadets were busy learning how to plot our ship’s
position and course. Under the direction of Mate Amy Luna, the cadets practiced
celestial navigation using a variety of equipment and tools. Cell navigation has been
important for centuries and remains so to this day. Stars are what guide
sailors even now, explained Mate Luna, should the GPS ever go down.
We headed up to the flying bridge, under the stars, where
Mate Luna and the cadets pointed out visible bodies like Venus, Mars, and
Jupiter. A strong breeze blew as the cadets busied themselves ‘shooting’ the
planets and stars that appeared in the fading evening light.
With the help of a sextant – a type of instrument for
measuring the altitude of each celestial body – the cadets shot three stars, and notated the timing of each shooting.
With this information, they are then able use spherical trigonometry to
obtain a “running fix” and determine the position of our ship and its direction.
Back in the aft chart room, the cadets will next take
into account our speed, latitude and longitude to locate our ship on plotting
sheets as well as on a master chart.
All this seems rather complicated next to the GPS map in
the corner of the room, but we’re happy they are getting lots of practice and learning how to navigate!
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