Following our progress

In all our passage reports we will give lat/long in degrees and minutes. If you would like to follow our progress, you can do what we have done and mark of a sheet of regular blank paper as follows:

Using a ruler or one side of an envelope, draw a grid of lines at 2 cm intervals and starting from the first line left of the top right corner, moving left, label the vertical lines 95, 100, 105, and so on - these are meridians of longitude (West). Each line represented 5 degrees of 'westing'.

Starting at the first line below the top right corner and moving down, label the horizontal lines 25, 20, 15, 10, 5, 0, 5S, 10S, 15S, 20S where S means south of the equator. Now Put an X at a position just below and to the right of the intersection of 25 deg North and 110 deg west. This is our starting position. For reference, Cabo San Lucas at the bottom of the Baja peninsula can be marked about a third of the way down from 25 deg N and just to the left of 110 deg W. Next you can put a mark at our first possible destination - Clarion Island - just to the right of 115 W and just below 20 N. This is an interesting place where we hope to sea sharks, whales, and giant mantas. Finally you can mark our ultimate passage destination at Hiva Oa in the Marquesas at 10 deg South and 138 deg West near the bottom left corner of your paper.

I know that being a computer geek I should have set up some sort of online chart to show our progress, but this is more interactive and a good boy scout or girl guide project - Get your badge in ocean navigation.