Race 4 - Day 5
Crew Diary - Race 5 - Day 5
27 December

Steering by the Southern Cross – looking for the Christmas Star

Hello to our WTC Logistics supporters and followers from almost the Southern Ocean, south of the Great Australian Bight. Having just come off the 4 am to 8 am watch and enjoyed some of Laurence’s internationally famous on Five Oceans (so far) ‘Clipper Race Crepes’, I am eventually looking forward to trying to sleep a little for our long off-watch ahead. I would like to name this blog ‘Steering by the Southern Cross – looking for the Christmas Star’.

I think we are constantly reminded of the privilege we have to be here and experience the different parts and aspects of this race, this voyage. A couple of nights ago we came up for midnight to 4 am watch on Christmas Eve. Others have written about the magnificence of the view we have of the celestial sphere in the southern sky. But we all commented on just how bright and clear the Milky Way was, and all the other stars as well. There were so many more stars behind the well-known constellations that sometimes the well known were a little difficult to find. The helming was ‘best to wind’ which meant for that time and wind and our intended path of heading south slightly west to catch a coming wind pattern, I was using the Southern Cross constellation as my guide to keep a reasonably straight course. At Christmas, I also thought about what the starry sky must have looked like for the wise men from the east as they headed to search for the Christ Child in Bethlehem, come to the world as a baby. They also must have had such a clarity of the sky.

And with so many stars in my vision, I realised how ignorant I was of the heavens and their importance to our forefathers navigators as they traversed the ocean. They would know all of the important ones and how to tell their position from the time of year and so on.

We on Black Betty are sharing some of their lives – the ocean, the stars, the weather, trying to control a boat while the wind and swell do different things. We are also experiencing their lack of outside communication for the period of our voyage. As we travel we have no idea of what is going on in the outside world – unless someone brought along a short-wave radio. So we travel like they did as they brought settlers to the colonies in Australia and New Zealand from Great Britain and Europe, gold-rush seekers amongst them. Even my great-great-great grandfather was a captain of one of those ships in the 1860’s, so his passengers were like us. Sharing each other’s company as we work our way along in the race. Our only outside communication worries are where the other yachts in the race are, as we work towards the southern tip of Tasmania, hopefully reaching it in the next three days or so. Now we have passed the scoring gate we are heading south-east with a following wind, Code 2 Spinnaker up. The ocean is a bit greener than blue today and the sky is clear and sunny but it is a little cool. Time for me to try to sleep. I hope you are all well and also enjoyed your Christmas festivities and celebrations. I look forward to our next meeting. Bye for now from Colin.