Welcome to the Natural Navigator

One of the first things that Charles Darwin discovered, during his epic travels on board the Beagle, was a dramatic natural navigation clue. Darwin was exploring the island of Santiago in the Cape Verde Islands, as he recounts in ‘The Voyage of the Beagle‘,

‘Another day we rode to the village of St. Domingo, situated near the centre of the island. On a small plain which we crossed, a few stunted acacias were growing; their tops had been bent by the steady trade-wind, in a singular manner – some of them even at right angles to their trunks. The direction of the branches was exactly north-east by north, and south-west by south, and these natural vanes must indicate the prevailing direction of the force of the trade-wind.’

Darwin uses the acacias to deduce the direction of the trade-winds in this instance, rather than find direction, but having established this…

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Just managed to snap the ‘supermoon’ as it rose above the woodland to the east of me. This photo was taken tonight at 19.03 GMT.

Tonight’s moon is the first time that a full moon has coincided with perigee, that is the moment when the moon is closest in its orbit, for 18 years. This is no ordinary perigee either, the moon will be 30,000 miles closer to Earth than usual. The result is what has been nicknamed a ‘supermoon’.

The best time to appreciate its enlarged size is when it is close to your horizon, rising or setting. Since it is a full moon this will be close to the time of your sunset and then sunrise.

There are some fascinating musings in todays Telegraph about any possible influence of this supermoon on tectonic activity, of greatest interest of course: earthquakes.

The Natural Navigator has gone on sale in Germany!

Der natürliche Kompass, Mit allen Sinnen unterwegs.

Congratulations to Sam LLewellyn on the launch of The Marine Quarterly.  A more handsome nautical vessel would be hard to find. (The Marine Quarterly that is.)

It would be considered poor form for me to comment at length on the quality of the content, since the launch issue includes a piece by me, ‘Stars and Waves’ on the subject of traditional Pacific navigation techniques. Suffice to say, the whole is beautiful and fascinating.

I suspect that the nautical community will soon be divided into two groups, those that know of the MQ and those that do not.

For more information or to subscribe (it is subscription only) visit The Marine Quarterly.

I have just returned from a wonderful couple of days in the Lake District. I was at the ‘Words by the Water‘ literary festival in Keswick in the Lake District. My thanks to Kay and Steve for hosting such a great event. When I was invited to give a talk it did not take long to make up my mind: a literary festival, in a theatre by a lake, surrounded by beautiful mountains? Where do I sign?

It would have been churlish not to sample some of the local bumps whilst up there and I enjoyed a fantastic walk up to High Street (named after the Roman Road that went over the peak). The conditions changed almost instantly, as they are wont to do at this time of year, from mild and sunny to bitter cold, freezing fog and ferocious winds near the summit. The map came out to…

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I thought you might enjoy this picture I took a week ago of lichen and moss growing on a disused fountain in a garden in the south of France. Nature doesn’t make compasses much easier to read, but just in case you’re experiencing a moment of doubt: the photo is taken looking from the south side of the fountain looking towards the north.

There have been a few book reviews in the US recently. Big thanks to those who have reviewed it – Timothy Smith, Clint Thomsen, Sam Edgin, Brad Allen, Randolph and Tillerman – it is great that the word is starting to spread Stateside. The following links go direct to the reviews:

The Washington Post

Amazon.com

The Englewood Review of Books

Bonnevillemariner.com

Proper Course

The following is an extract from David Thompson‘s ‘Narrative of his Explorations in Western America’:

‘I had always admired the tact (ie. keen perception) of the Indian in being able to guide himself through the darkest pine forests to exactly the place he intended to go, his keen, constant attention on everything; the removal of the smallest stone, the bent or broken twig; a slight mark on the ground, all spoke plain language to him. I was anxious to acquire this knowledge, and often being in company with them, sometimes for several months, I paid attention to what they pointed out to me, and became almost equal to some of them; which became of great use to me.’

A big thanks to Douglas Everett of California’s Radio Parallax for having me on his show. Radio Parallax is a beacon for all those who fear that broadcast media is becoming too homogenised and bland. It’s a great choice of station name too:

* Parallax: the apparent change in the position of an object resulting from the change in position from which it is viewed; Websters New World Dictionary, 2nd college edition 1968.

My interview can be downloaded from here: http://www.radioparallax.com/File/021011B.mp3

I’m doing some research at the moment and came across this line, written by the German explorer Alexander von Humboldt, about flying fish:

‘Like swallows they shoot forward in thousands in straight lines, always against the waves.’

I’ve seen a fair few flying fish in my time, even been hit by a few. I’ve also come across this idea that they always fly in a set direction relative to the waves a couple of times before, but I’ve yet to work out whether this is true or not. If so it could offer some interesting navigational pointers for times when the wave direction is hard to gauge. Anyone able to shed any further light on this?

The flying fish in this picture is one that hit me in the face in the night when crossing the Atlantic singlehanded. It gave me one hell of a shock, but lost the fight…

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