Position: 2000 LT 37°12’ S, 150°51’ E
Date:Friday February 19, 2010
Date:Friday February 19, 2010
Miles
Our investment in an easterly course from Sydney was the right choice. After sailing all night on a port tack we could ease the leeside brasses to wear. To be short we sail again with 10 knots. 10 knots is 10 nautical mile in one hour. In the old days the ships speed was measured by counting the knots that passed on a line that was released behind the ship. This all in the time that an hourglass was running.
For someone with a metric education, a nautical mile with 1852 meter in it will be a bit odd. But it is not strange if you know that a circle has 360 degrees, one hour has 60 minutes and an arc minute has a length of … 1852 meter. The stubborn metricist be start calculating and conclude that a circum navigation has aprox. 40.000 kilometers in it, what is a metrical logic…?
Richard Slootweg
Captain Clipper Stad Amsterdam
