Chapter 2 -O : Thursday 16th of February -- logged 117 miles

Juan was off his course this morning and 'Penelope" yawning over the place.; The skipper made us laugh by saying "every day I admire Sir Francis Drake less".  Poor old Juan.; He is an excellent fellow but always "knows best" and as a sample of the Spanish Navy he certainly doesn't reach a very high standard.  What their discipline is like is surely "nobody's business" if his reactions can be taken as normal.

Today dawned, as yesterday, with a few light woolley clouds on the northern horizon.
The skipper taught me how to obtain a position line from the Air Navigation Reduction tables, a method perfected during the war.; Much quicker working that the Cosine-Haversine Formula 1 learned in 1922 which I have been using up to now to check our daily position.

My specific duties on board, apart from assistant navigator are: - 

• Watchkeeping
• Lamp Trimmer (filling lamps daily with paraffin, trimming wicks and lighting up.  the binnacle lamps lit usually with "Captain Watts special" - a storm proof match in a watertight plastic box - very practical.)
• (a.m.&p.m.) Pumping Bilges
• Making tea, at odd hours of the day
• Drying the dishes after meals (Juan does the washing up in salt water.

 
Apart from these duties I lend a hand on deck when shortening sail, setting sails and often relieve the skipper at the when required.  The watchkeeping follows a notice board posted in the chart room which now reads:-

S - Skipper
M - Mate
J - Juan
O - Oliver

The day being divided into three 4 hour watches and the night into four 3 hour watches.

Date	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
07-11		O	O	O	O	O	O
11-15	S	M	J	S	M	J	S
15-19	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
19-22	J	S	M	J	S	M	J
22-01	M	J	S	M	J	S	M
01-04	S	M	J	S	M	J	S
04-07	J	S	M	J	S	M	J

Trolling for fish . No Catch