经济学人下载:环球航海家马文·克里默(3)

Both north and south of the Equator, his calculations proved so accurate that almost all the Globe Star’s landfalls, on a route from Dakar via Sydney round to Bermuda, were within 15 miles of the target, and close to the dates he’d set. Yet for much of the voyage he could not see the night sky at all. Crossing the Pacific, they had five sights of the stars in 5,000 miles. To estimate latitude and direction he had to be fiercely observant in daylight, too.
在赤道北部和南部，克雷默的估测都非常准确，在从达喀尔途径悉尼到达百慕大群岛的路线中，几乎每次“地球之星”的着陆地都在目标地域15英里以内，时间也接近他设定的日期。但是，在航行的大部分时间，克雷默都根本看不到夜晚的天空。穿越太平洋时，他们在5000英里的范围内只看到了五颗星星。为了估计纬度和方向，克雷默得在白天保持极其敏锐的观察力。

He watched the sea most: its deep swell, the surface interaction of new waves with old ones, and the shadows they cast; its colour, whether blue in the deep or green in plankton-filled waters, and the wake of the boat. He guessed the Globe Star’s speed from the time bubbles took to move from bow to stern. His log showed that, having veered off the Horn in fog and with no landmarks, he was unsure whether they had rounded it or not.
他注视的最多的是大海：深深的波涛，新旧海浪在水面上的相互作用，以及它们所投下的阴影；它的颜色，或是是深海的蓝色，或是充满浮游生物的水域里的绿色，还有船的尾迹。他通过气泡从船头到船尾移动的时间来猜测环“地球之星”的速度。他的航海日志显示，他们在浓雾中偏离了合恩角，而且又没有路标，他不确定他们是否绕过了这里。

But he thought they had because the sea had gone from a dark transparent green to a lighter green and then turned dark again—the colour, an old mariner had told him, of the Atlantic. He guessed they had, too, from the sudden icy breath of a north wind coming off the snow-covered Andes. The wind was always a useful indicator. Leaving Cape May, he had set course south-east for Senegal by keeping the freezing north-westerly at the midpoint of the back of his neck. After days in the doldrums, floating with no direction, the sudden nail-scraping squeak of a hatch told him that a dry wind was blowing up from Antarctica.
但是他觉得他们饶了过去，因为海洋的颜色从从暗绿色变成浅绿色，后来又变成深色——一位老水手曾告诉他，那就是大西洋的颜色。通过白雪覆盖的安第斯山脉吹来的北风，突然吹来一阵冰冷的气息，他也觉得他们饶了过去。风总是一个有用的指示信号。离开开普梅后，克雷默将寒冷的西北风甩在正后方，向东南方向驶往塞内加尔。他在赤道无风带漂浮了几天，没有方向。突然，舱门上吱吱作响的刮指甲声告诉他，有一阵干燥的风正从南极吹来。