Crew Blog

GPS

24 June 2008

So we’re in the middle of the Atlantic, full main,Yankee 1 + Staysail pounding along with the sun out and my watch taking a breather and drying out from the night before’s antics in the rain. Well placed in the fleet, all’s well in the world. Since the Americans stuck a few casio watches into a bunch of satellites many, like us, have been enjoying the experience of knowing where you are at any given time pretty much anywhere in the world but here I am on the helm taking it all in when an alarm sounds from below deck. This isn’t something new, there’s an alarm for everything on this boat but today this alarm is letting people know that our navigation system has lost communication with 12 American satellites that pour information down to a tiny white plastic mushroom-shaped antenna that sits on the back of the boat. This coincided with a secondary GPS system that also decided that there were no longer any satellites over the Atlantic. This would very quickly compromise our competitiveness and could also make it harder to avoid bad weather systems. The racers among us were concerned first then others who wondered how you actually navigate without GPS started to discuss methods used by our forefathers. I on the other hand found it quite liberating. Not being tied to sensitive racing data and just pointing in the general direction of Europe added the element of surprise into this trans-Atlantic crossing. Where were we going? What strange tongue will the natives speak? What riches will the lands yield? Vasquez de Gamma, Christopher Columbus, Drake and the rest of you, I am there with you. I can feel excitement of the unknown, the trepidation. THIS is adventure sailing, this twist changes everything. We are explorers! Meanwhile the GPS receiver was switched off for half an hour, switched back on again and a dozen little beacons from the heavens started chirping away again. Oh well, back to the race.

MC