Charts

Charts

As is tradition on all ships at sea, I plot my noon positions on large-scale oceanic charts.. I have these charts for every ocean I will be crossing.

For the first time on this voyage, we changed charts. I left Victoria plotting my positions on a chart of the Eastern North Pacific published by NOAA. Today, I plotted my noon position on a large scale chart of French Polynesia published by the New Zealand Hydrographic Service.

I can see on this chart nearly all the Islands that fuel South Pacific dreams and fantasies alike. I can see that I am only a few days sail from the Marquesas and only a week or more from Tahiti. Just a few days west lie the waters trampled by Cook, Bligh, and Vancouver just to name a few.

It is incredibly hard to believe that I am actually here. I wonder if it is some trick played and the charting and navigating and figuring and plotting is some Matrix-like simulation that I am caught up in. Is it really true that if I hang a right, I’ll hit Nuku Hiva?

Almost as surreal is that I’m planning a fly-by of Pitcairn Island. The HMS Bounty, Captain Bligh and Fletcher Christian Pitcairn Island. It will rise from the sea and float on the horizon for me exactly as it did for the mutineers some 240 years ago. Talk about the stuff of dreams…

Follow my tracks in real-time:
https://bit.ly/svseaburban