Course / Passages / Tahiti to Fiji

Passage · Day 10

Tahiti to Fiji

22°S20°S18°S16°S14°S174°E176°E178°E180°178°W176°W174°W180°SuvaKittiwake, day 10138 miles to go
The track so far, solid; the rest of the way, dashed. Coasts simplified: not for navigation.

Kittiwake, a 42-foot cutter, is ten days out of Tahiti, bound for Suva in Fiji. The Sun now crosses the sky to the north at noon, the Southern Cross stands up in the evening sky, and today the boat crosses 180° of longitude: the date line. The plotter died with the battery bank; you are navigating by hand.

It is 0600 on Monday, June 15, 2026. Last night's star fix, carried forward, puts you at S 17°44.8', W 179°10.3'. Suva is 138 miles away. Kittiwake is steering 260° true at 7 knots through the water.

The ship's clock keeps zone time, zone description +12. Your watch was checked against the shortwave time signal: it is 21 s slow. The sextant has an index error of 0.8′ on the arc, and your eye is 9 feet above the sea.

Today

  1. 0906 Morning Sun line
  2. 0926 When is noon?
  3. 1200 The noon sight
  4. 1210 Running fix at noon
  5. 1246 Crossing the date line
  6. 1719 Planning the star sights
  7. 1809 Star fix at twilight

Every voyage is different: the date, the current, the sights and the stars change each time you sail it. Later stages start from the correct work of earlier ones, so one slip does not spoil the day.