Almost Galapagos
/ 15 March 2012
13Mar12.
“I can change the world, with my own two hands
I can make peace on Earth, with my own two hands,
I can clean up the Earth, with my own two hands.
With my own, with my own two hands.”
But you got to, got to, got to, got to Use your own, Use your own, Two hands.” Ben Harper
A single hand extends towards the heavens, the scorching sun dropping slowly to the horizon casts welcome shadows on the hot deck. The sun is setting, in 3 hours time, at 2 degrees south of West. It’s currently 1 house aft of our beam which makes our course about 10 degrees east of South, 170True or Haka-Malanai in Polynesian Navigation terms.
However we have a 2 knot current driving us to the west so we are actually travelling about 210True or Na Leo, but don’t tell the Navigators, they’re working it all out for themselves and this is secret information known only to the Captains with the GPS’s and the select few they share it with (you).
For trainees they’re doing very well. Kalei is our Navigator on this leg and he’s doing a great job riding the sleepless train as days turn into nights and nights into days. The Navigators have to maintain focus pretty much constantly to hold course, but they’re not alone. We made a point of drilling into our crew the importance of concentrating when their on the hoe (steering paddle) too.
We’ve been blessed with clear nights and stars to steer by; during the day we work off the major swells to maintain direction but there’s no question a little concentration goes a long way. We’ve done fantastically in holding our course and as a consequence are in a good position relative to the fleet. So while the crew may still look pretty (it’s a relative thing) they are embracing the kaupapa (way of doing) and distracting themselves and others less.
It’s rewarding to see how well we perform and what we can achieve when we share a goal and stay focused. Imagine if we all did that. There’s not much we couldn’t achieve. Now if mainstream media would join us in promoting the goal instead of merely pleasant or un- distraction that would be something special. There’s always hope.
In the meantime Galapagos does not loom on the in the distance as we’d like it to, however it is very, very close in space if not time. If we were going faster I’d be worried we’d run into it, but at a screaming 2 knots in the good moments I don’t think we’d do any damage anyway.
‘Nite all, Dunc and Haunui
