NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Wind & Current Navigation
From: Trevor Kenchington
Date: 2003 Apr 27, 12:12 -0300
From: Trevor Kenchington
Date: 2003 Apr 27, 12:12 -0300
Coming to this a bit late, as I juggle paperwork and preparing my little boat for launching: Last Tuesday, George Istok wrote: > I have always thought that navigation and piloting were separate concepts. This is one of the classic cases of two (or more) nations being divided by a common language. Having been raised on English nautical terminology and now re-trained on the Canadian interpretation of U.S. nautical language, I'll try to explain to both sides: What English mariners know as "piloting" is called "conning" on this side of The Pond -- both refer to the process of guiding a vessel around without formal plotting of positions, courses and so forth on a chart. American "piloting", at least in the recreational community, is broad-ranging, encompassing much of what both versions of English would regard as "seamanship", but "piloting" certainly includes and arguably is centred on "plotting" and the collection of data to plot on the chart, which together would be called "coastal navigation" in the Old Country. I think the two forms of terminology draw closer once they move to the third level: What was "astro navigation" in England when I was much younger is "celestial navigation" in American technical English today. Trevor Kenchington -- Trevor J. Kenchington PhD Gadus@iStar.ca Gadus Associates, Office(902) 889-9250 R.R.#1, Musquodoboit Harbour, Fax (902) 889-9251 Nova Scotia B0J 2L0, CANADA Home (902) 889-3555 Science Serving the Fisheries http://home.istar.ca/~gadus