Pink Lady and Centaur - Success for Both

There is good news for both. One is successfully rounding the Horn after a big build-up - Jessica Watson's Pink Lady. The other is now found at last and is being heavily documented. The navigator of the Centaur, Second Officer Richard G. Rippon, has at last been vindicated as the Centaur has been found very close to the position he gave at the time. Wikipedia says that the position of the Centaur as found is withing one nautical mile of Rippon's position which he calculated from his dead-reckoning position fix ten minutes before the sinking. Given the accuracy of the navigational tools of the time, the position is pretty good. These days with GPS, finding a position within a few feet is not much trouble. But in 1943, the instruments and methods of navigation in general use had changed little in more than a century. Any position that was within five miles was pretty good and it took a good professional navigator (Rippon) to do any better. Jessica may or may not be able to use a sextant but the electronics are holding up and she is doing very well. I was concerned about the way the Pink Lady was set up and I was especially concerned about how well Pink Lady would behave if she took a wave over the bow. So far, she's getting away with it and she sure has got a big smile on her face right now. It's a tiny little boat to be rounding the Horn in but, what the hell, it's still afloat and going really well. I am absolutely delighted that my worries have been put to rest. My next worry is the Great Southern Ocean in that part of the world between the Southern Indian Ocean and South of Western Australia (around 50°S 100°E). A couple of real pros came to grief there a few years back - Tony Bullimore and Thierry Dubois - and their rescue was part miracle. Jessica is not in a race, so she doesn't have to "push the edge of the envelope". I'm still a bit edgy about getting Jessica back on dry land but, now that the Horn is past, I'm much less worried than I was. Fair sailing, Jessica!