NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: DR navigation in the recreatiional fleet: was Role of CN at sea
From: Jim Thompson
Date: 2004 Oct 13, 20:55 -0300
From: Jim Thompson
Date: 2004 Oct 13, 20:55 -0300
Lisa, I would much prefer to sail long distances with a navigator of your philosophy. I admit my personality and somewhat obsessive tendency to document stuff. And yes, what you describe is the Power & Sail Squadron approach to teaching recreational navigation. On a long trip I would do what you suggest. On our short-distance cruises in our Maritime province waters I keep periodic notes as I steam along regarding weather, sea state and approximate position, while my GPS records an electronic log of exact speed, course and position. But I do not keep the kind of detailed log that we kept in training. I doubt that the procedure you describe, or even my more limited practice, are common among coastal cruisers, at least based on conversations I have had with fellow boaters. It certainly is not the practice on short-distance (40-100 mile) coastal trips in these parts, and does not appear to be the common practice of those who sail south periodically either. Jim Thompson jim2@jimthompson.net www.jimthompson.net Outgoing mail scanned by Norton Antivirus ----------------------------------------- > -----Original Message----- > From: Navigation Mailing List on Behalf Of Lisa Fiene > > Just wanted to check with all of you, as instructors, on some thoughts > which have come to mind reading through this thread. > > Is it in your experience that recreational sailors/cruisers actually > write down their lat/long, log speed, SOG, course steered, wind > strength/direction, barometric pressure, sea state etc in a log? Do > they then physically mark the position on their chart (allowing for set > and drift)? Do you as instructors teach this? > > I very much remember being taught this navigation discipline from a man > who had sailed around the world. He was constantly checking, writing, > comparing, plotting. He could not stress to me enough the importance of > good navigational seamanship, and mainly WRITING DOWN and CHARTING where > you are on a regular basis. On passages, he would write down this > information at least every 2 hours in the log, and would make sure that > when he wasn't on watch, that the person following him did the same > also. Sights were taken morning noon and twilight, and compared with > GPS, and written down. > > These skills were really drilled into me, and I can't actually > comprehend navigating any other way. He taught me how to navigate. > > What are instructors teaching students now? I'm most interested to hear > your comments.