A tall ship, and a star to steer her by...

H Melville's words have been resonating in my ears for the past week. I have done a fair amount of 'night sailing' so far on this race, but crossing into the southern hemisphere has made it a bit more special!

I've spent a lot of time trying to get to know some of the constellations and stars here. Any knowledge I have regarding astro-navigation is purely based on the night sky of the Northern hemisphere! Not a great deal of use in the South Atlantic!

The twin stars of 'Centurious' are very clear, and has been my navigational fix for over a week now. As the night moves on I tend to follow 'Scorpius' (I believe is its correct name). It is essentially a giant Scorpion floating in the heavens! The curve of the sting and two sharp pincers can be clearly made out.

The Milky Way can be clearly identified (typically running North to South). With no light pollution from artificial lighting, every star is clearly visible!

We are also treated to a nightly show of shooting stars! It's hard not to miss them as I spend most of my time looking up, trimming the sails!

Over the past few nights our Watch Leader (Jim) has passed responsibility for calling the trim on the head sails to me. This involves standing on the bow, with waves sweeping across the foredeck, attempting to communicate instructions to the rest of the crew who are just behind the mast! It has been a lot of fun, and I have learned so much from this experience. I have now developed 'trim OCD'! Instructions are communicated to the crew on the winches by a mixture of hand signals and shouts. As I walk forward I always 'eye ball' the helm, and ask them not to 'dunk me'! This is frequently ignored, and gives the rest of the watch a good giggle! There is nothing more satisfying than returning from the 'pointy end' of the yacht, having been repeatedly dowsed by the Atlantic for five minutes, and told that the boat speed has increased by 1 knot (that type of increase over a 1,000 nautical mile distance can shorten your race by days)!

Life on board is going well. We are working hard to maintain our position, as well as put pressure on 'Gold Coast Australia' (who currently lead). We receive a race schedule every six hours, so we can clearly identify if we have made any gains or losses on the rest of the fleet. So far we have had lots of good news, as we make steady progress to Rio! The next 'sched' is due soon, so fingers crossed we continue with our 'gains' on the rest of the fleet!