From the Big Dipper to the Southern Cross

The stars are very bright out in the middle of the Caribbean. During our crossing from Jamaica to Colombia there were no city lights, buildings, or haze to block them out. One cloudless night, I came up on deck to take over watch from Alan. There had been no wind for almost a day and we were motoring on a heading of 180 degrees- due south. The first thing I noticed was a strangely familiar constellation off the port bow. "The Southern Cross," Alan (our star expert) confirmed.

The Southern Cross is a constellation which is mainly seen in the southern hemisphere, but was visible in the sky just above the horizon because we were in the tropical latitudes at 18 degrees north of the Equator. It is a very distinguishable constellation, with the form of a cross or kite. The top and bottom stars of the upright cross point towards the celestial South Pole, which makes it a useful constellation for visual navigation.

After Alan went below, I took my eyes off our compass and steered the course by keeping the cross ahead. It rotated slowly across the sky from East to West over the four hour watch, and I could even see it reflected in the calm and glassy water.

Two nights later was a different story. We had killed the motor and raised a lot of sails to harness the light breezes that appeared, then started taking down and reefing the remaining sails as the wind kept building. Eventually, we were sailing under our storm jib and double-reefed mainsail. The waves and swells were keeping pace with the wind, and we were now pitching, rolling, yawing, and heaving like a carnival ride.

I slowly crawled above deck for 4 AM watch, wearing foulies, life vest, and safety harness. The wind vane steerer was well set, so I did not have to adjust the wheel, and instead watched our course on the compass and chart plotter. I eventually tried to hide from the wind and waves in the bottom of the cockpit, facing backwards and looking north- our course was still almost due south.

Well above the horizon appeared the very familiar Big Dipper constellation, complete with the two pole-pointing stars at the end of the cup that pointed down at the horizon towards Polaris, the North Star. For the rest of the night I was able to watch the dipper dance around our mizzenmast, making sure that the waves and wind shifts were not changing our heading too much. It was interesting to glance from the stars to the chart plotter radar display, using both the old and the new to try to keep the boat safe and on course.

See Alan's Crew Journal post "Future Astronomers" for more information on Celestial Navigation and Stars!