#flatstanley #flathal #geography #west
The Flat Friends went forward on one of the upper decks tonight to take sunset pictures. It looked like we were sailing into the sunset — or aiming for it? Remembering our research about the stars, and Peter Pan, they got curious… if a ship points its bow towards the setting sun, and follows it, will they sail West? (Why?)
The Heading to Buenos Aires
Based on our current position between Punta del Este and Buenos Aires, our heading is almost exactly West!
Punta del Este is situated on the eastern edge of the Río de la Plata estuary.
Buenos Aires lies nearly due west across the water.
Technically, the heading is a slight West-Northwest (WNW).
And let’s not forget… the sun rises in the east, and sets in the west.
The “Peter Pan” Navigation
While Peter Pan used stars, our “straight on till morning” approach works quite well for this specific leg of your journey.
The “Setting Sun”: In the evening, this is your compass for West.
The Heading: Since Buenos Aires is to your west, “aiming for the sun” is the most poetic (and relatively accurate) way to describe our current navigation.
The Estuary: We are currently sailing through the Río de la Plata, which is one of the widest river estuaries in the world. Even though it looks like the open ocean in our photos, you are actually in the gateway between Uruguay and Argentina.
While it looks like the ocean, the water the Flat Friends are seeing is actually part of a massive river system.
Does the water look blue or brown to you? The Río de la Plata is famous for its silty, brownish color closer to the shore. The Flat Friends saw a lot of that brown when our thrusters started up. The engines were pushing the water to turn the ship — and there was only about 3 meters (9 feet) between our ship and the bottom of the river. That’s what the Captain calls “shallow water” when dropping anchor.
As we sail the Rio de la Plata to Buenos Aires there will be just 30 meters of water below our ship. (That’s the height of a 10 story building… or Temple of Kukulcan (El Castillo) at Chichen Itza, Mexico. Flat Hal hopes to someday visit Chichen Itza!)
