Navigation Update | Course Line to Christmas Island

So a little discussion about our course. We received a tracking map today from the office, and that’s pretty much what we intended to do and how it went. So initially, we just steered our course, which is one star house south of west. For our type of navigation we call that star house Lā Kona. Kona is the southwestern quadrant, and Lā is the first star house on either side of Komohana which is west. So we’re in Lā Kona, the southwestern quadrant. For a good two to three days, we were steady on that course. There’s a couple variables, one is the weather, the wind and the seas. We can only sail given what that allows us to sail. Another factor is our escort vessel, they’re a different type of vessel. They have totally different sailing dynamics than we do. So at one point, I think on the third day, we adjusted our course one star house south of our course of Lā Kona to ʻĀina Kona, just so they could have a good sailing angle and keep up speed. So we knew we deviated south of our course line. And then at some point went back to our reference course paralleling our course line which was Lā Kona, but we knew we were south. So last night, we knew we had to get back up, so we reached up and basically steered Komohana, to reach back up to the course line to go find the island. So it just worked out wonderfully, but that was the strategy. You can see it on our reference course, and it worked out fabulous. I have to say thanks to the crew for steering so well and being diligent and on it whenever they’re on watch. Thank you for following us and keep with us on Hokulea.com.

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