1Today we will learn how sailors describe any position on the open ocean using latitude and longitude coordinates.
2The island we are studying lies at ten degrees north latitude and one hundred and forty degrees east longitude.
3Its nearest neighbour, the island of Yap, spelled Y-A-P, sits roughly four hundred kilometres to the west.
4At the equator, one degree of longitude equals about one hundred and eleven kilometres in actual distance.
5The capital city lies only two degrees south of the equator, so the climate stays hot throughout the entire year.
6Average temperatures range between twenty-seven and thirty-two degrees in every month of the year from January to December.
7The highest mountain on the island rises to seven hundred and ninety metres above sea level.
8About twelve thousand people live there, most of them in villages along the sheltered western coast.
9The flight from Manila covers one thousand six hundred kilometres and takes nearly three hours on most days.
10Remember that sailors read latitude first and longitude second when they write down any position.