Pythagorus, Archimedes and Me

Over all my time on watch, I have struggled with one thing, how to entertain myself. Entertaining myself on watch is a tricky balance. Watch is often just inactive enough that it does not hold my interest, but it still requires enough attention to prevent me from reading or playing a board game. The ideal entertainment is something quiet so other people can sleep, is not too distracting so I can still pay enough attention to sailing the boat, and something that can be dropped in an instant if need be. Fortunately, I found a form of entertainment that still manages to entertain me after more than two years.

The GPS shows not only our course and speed, but how far we have gone on this entire trip. It is called the odometer. I have found two things to do with the odometer. The first is celebrating palindromes, when the odometer is the same forwards and backwards or noting thousand mile marks, like the one we just passed yesterday: 30,000 nautical miles. I am often heard to remark on how many miles to the next palindrome.The second is a sort of game. I add up all the digits of the odometer repeatedly until I get a one digit number. For example: to solve 29,765, I would add up 2+9+7+6+5=29 and then 2+9=11 and then1+1=2. The number 29765 is therefore a "2."

During all this mental adding, I have noticed many patterns. The most prominent is the ability to drop nines. Here is an example: take the number 29765 again. We know it is a "2" but let's try dropping the 9 so that we get 2+7+6+5=20 and then2+0=2. It is still a "2". You can also drop any two numbers which add up to nine. Remove the 2 and the 7, as they add up to nine, as well as the 9. You get 6+5=11 and then1+1=2. I have also noticed many other patterns. With these cutting-edge odometer-solving techniques, I can usually solve an odometer number in less than five seconds, before messing around with it, trying to find another pattern or oddity.

The real beauty of this game is that it draws my eye to the GPS, where I should look every few minutes while on watch. Another great fact is the odometer changes every few minutes. In the intervening time, I can fiddle with the number to my mind's content, but I do not grow bored of the same number day after day. Besides helping my mental math skills, it certainly helps pass the time I spend on watch. Sometimes when I think about the patterns, I wonder whether Pythagorus or Archimedes spent hours stuck on watch at sea, fiddling with triangles and circles, though I think their discoveries may be of more use than mine!-Porter