LOG SINES, COSINES &c...

On the 1st April our Meles mentioned five decimal log tables which ticked my nostalgia box & I fished out my old "Norie's Nautical Tables" (extra) - 643 pages of concentrated five decimal stuff.

There was no GPS in my day & we needed to calculate our longitude by means of a sextant, a chronometer slung on gimbals in a dust-free box with a glass lid &  these magical tables + 25 minutes of frantic calculation.

We would be lucky to get accuracy within a mile, but it was still magic having crossed the Indian Ocean - 8 days - to see the Fremantle lighthouse pop up dead ahead!

Too easy these days!