Text Author: Florian Wilken

The night watches, starting at 20:00 hours and ending 12 hours later at 08:00 hours the next morning, are always special in their own way. Apart from fulfilling the regular watch duties such as checking the sails, the course and the local wheather situation, it is the night sky that attracts most of our attention. Sometimes there are a few clouds gathered mainly close to the horizon but also above us. However, most of the times the sky is clearly visible, and that is when we marvle at the thousands of stars that shine upon this vast ocean and upon our comparatively small catamaran 'Wildlife'. Shooting stars are very commonly seen in all directions, some small, visible just a fraction of a second, some very bright and with a long tail, iluminating part of the sky above us. These are the ones that leave us in awe because it becomes clear to us that we cannot fully grasp the dimensions and complexity of the universe.

During the first two weeks of our voyage we would stare at the night sky, trying to identify the different constellations and learn about their history (Guide to Stars and Planets by Patrick Moore and Wil Tirion):

Orion: 'It represents the great hunter who boasted that he could kill any creature on earth - but he met his match in the scorpion, which stung him in the heel and killed him.'

Ursa Major: 'This most famous of constellations is named in honor of Callisto, daughter of King Lycaon of Arcadia, who was turned into a bear by Juno, the jealous wife of Jupiter.'

and others ...

For the last few days now the Wildlife crew has started to see the stars as a mean to identify their current position. We have taken out our sextants, trying to learn how to use this navigational instrument which has been of service to mariners in determining a vessel's position on earth for many centuries. 'Shooting a star' such as the sun and later calculating ones position from the altitude taken by the sextant and the exact hour given by the chronometer is truly an art which we will still have to master. We are eager to learn this art, for it is not only interesting, fun and quite rewarding to be able to 'calculate' your own position, but also one of the most reliable backup systems there is in today's world of electronical navigation.