Shooting stars

11 April 2019

Friday afternoon the guest crew collected for the OOSTERSCHELDE on the fishing quay of Palmeira. Some of the guest crew did earlier trips on the OOSTERSCHELDE and knew each other. After being dingied aboard it felt like coming home. Saturday the cook did a last hunt for vital vitamins on the Island of Sal. Customs was very cooperative with clearing out. So early in the afternoon we could heave anchor. That went not without struggle because the anchor chains were twisted. As of the Island was relucant to let us go.

Once the problem was solved we raised sails and plunged into to Atlantic with a 5 Bf breeze and a swell of 3 meters. People susceptable to sea sicknes went through that unpleasant stage, but were happily recovering after a day. Heavy sunblockers were required to protect our bleak northern skins. After two days it felt as we were already weeks on board. No much traffic on this part of the ocean. No ships, no sea mammals, no sea birds, no sea weed. Only a Brasilian bulk carrier and a Portugese man-of-war (jelly fish) crossed our course. An in the night sky airplanes passed as moving stars. Other moving stars came from the constellation Virgin – the virginids shooting stars. A few of the guest crew brought a sextant, with which we exercised shooting stars. After some sun shootings we concentrated on a star fixes during the nautical twilight. The teadious manual calculation and table selections we do now with an app, so we can concentrate on the actuals sextant sightings. After a few days we were capable of narrowing down the fix within a few miles accurate.

All the sails are on and are well balanced. The ship almost steers herself. As if she knows she is heading for the homeport.