The natural Navigation: The Right Course, Naturally

My thanks to everyone who came to my talk last night at the Weald and Downland Museum. What a wonderful place to spend a summer’s evening, I recommend a visit to anyone who has yet to sample its delights.

On a different note, I received a fascinating letter recently from someone who has read the book. They wrote to me with an unusual observation.

I have touched the phenomenon of the ‘green flash’ at sunset in this blog and elsewhere, it is well documented and well heard-of. My correspondent is keen to learn more about something different and since I have been unable to solve the mystery, I promised to publish the extract from his letter here in the hope that a blog reader may be able to offer an insight.

“...My second point is the green flash you mention. My experience was quite different from the quick…

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Last night I managed to take 46 photographs in a desperate bid to catch the elusive, and some like to say mythical, ‘green flash’ at the moment of sunset. The green flash is an optical phenomenon caused mainly by blue/green light bending more than the reds/yellows. There is a fuller description of its causes on Wikipedia.

I did not manage to see or capture the flash, but peering out across the Persian Gulf at the anchored ships, feeling the cool westerlies coming off its waters as the heat of the day faded… is not a bad way to endure a fruitless search.

It is often very difficult to see the sun clearly at the moment of sunset due to clouds or haze, but there are times when, if the sky is clear, the air is dry enough and the horizon is an ocean, then the sun can be seen…

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Regular blog readers will know that I am a bit of a fan of Robert Pirsig’s book, ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance‘. I’m just about to finish the sequel, ‘Lila‘, which is also a bit of a positive mind-bender (that is if you have some alternative views, and possibly a negative one if you consider yourself a conformist. Come to think of it, a conformist wouldn’t buy the book, and if they stumbled across it would be unlikely to start it and if they did start it, would be extremely unlikely to finish it.)

Pirsig takes on some massive philosophical beasts in both books, but the freshness of his approach can sometimes be seen best in the way he deals with more simple and natural phenomena. This is his take on the fabled ‘green flash’ of the setting sun,

‘When Phaedrus started to read yachting literature…

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