Captain's Log

February 13, 2003

Hello all,

Another milestone in BTC Velocity's attempt to circumnavigate the globe took place overnight as we got to experience Thursday 13th February, for a second time !!! BTC Velocity crossed the International Date Line at approx noon GMT time and regained a day, well sort of.

This whole ' time thing ' can get a little confusing when crossing so many lines of longitude. As we all know, every 15 degrees of Longitude equals one hour of time ( or just take 360 degrees and divide by 24 time zones which = 15 degrees per hour ) ; therefore, since crossing the Greenwich Meridian off South Africa in December, approximately every 2 - 3 days at sea my ' ships or local time ' has been advancing by an hour. That means I have been losing time. After crossing 12 time zones I finally get 24 hours back and am 12 hours behind GMT and again every 2 - 3 days I will be getting closer, by adding an hour again. Confused ?? well add that explanation to the need to keep up with GMT, that the race office and all maritime weather uses for forecasting, then how about your family in Bermuda and the 3 clocks on my nav station take a little deciphering in some of my more foggy moments !!

The first 5 days at sea since leaving New Zealand have been very pleasant. Either light on the wind or medium reaching conditions. Sunny skies with the now familiar Albatrosses, Shearwaters and big clumps of sea weed remind me that we are back in the Southern Ocean. There is plenty of time for the gales and gray skies, so I will enjoy the present while we got it.

Regards

Alan Paris
BTC Velocity