Happy St. Valentine’s Day! We’re expecting to make St Helena tomorrow morning, so we had an impromptu Valentine’s marlinspike party this evening since we’ll be in port tomorrow night. We retarded the clocks last night to Greenwich Mean Time. A clear night and almost no swell made for a great evening for star sights tonight – Sirius, Canopus and Betelgeuse are at good angles at the moment to make an excellent fix.
SHIPS WORK: Primer on the hardware for the royal yard, splices on the outer jib sheet pennants, more quaterdeck holystoning, minor repairs to the wooden Pelorus stand, which attaches to the taff rail on the quarterdeck for taking bearings, and more sailmaking on the hatch.
BOUND FROM: Luderitz, Namibia, Southern Africa
TOWARDS: James Bay, St Helena, South Atlantic Ocean
TIME ZONE: GMT
NOON POSITION: 17°20.5S /002°52.5’E
DAYS RUN: 191 nm
PASSAGE DISTANCE RUN: 1,206 nm
DISTANCE REMAINING: 172 nm
COURSE AND SPEED: North West a half North, Course made good 302° true, 8.4 knots
WIND: Wind Force 3, South by West
WEATHER: Fair, 3/8 cloud, barometer 1020 millibars and falling slowly, visibility very good
SWELL HEIGHT & DIRECTION: South by East 1m
SAILS SET: All square sails except foresail; inner jib and maintopmast staysail set.