As you switch on your chart plotter…..

Sandy said:
He, like us, was using the technology of his time.

At least if a fuse blows deep in the heart of your electronics system knew roughly where he was as he had a note of it in a proper log book.
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He knew pretty well where he was (weather permitting).

He just didn't know where anything else was until he'd mapped it or bumped into it! 😀
 
LittleSister said:
I remember that sort of malarkey, and also trying to time the voyage so you approached the coast from a distance in the last hours of darkness, when one could see from lighthouses' characteristics* roughly where you were along the coast, but you soon had daylight to see what was required as you came inshore.

(* I used to write the characteristics of the main lights for my trip in pencil in big letters on the bulkhead at the front of the cockpit, adjacent the companionway, especially important single-handed, to save trips into the cabin to pore over maps. Haven't done that in a long while now.)
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I don’t write them down, but I’ll certainly have looked up what I am meant to see. I suppose we don’t have to have noted the nearest 20 any more, just the nearest 3. Which makes them easier to commit to memory🤣
 
A strange fact about log books, well some of mine anyway. I just used ordinary hard backed note books from W H Smith or Woolies and wrote them up with the same soft pencil that I used on the Chart. Now some of the Logs from the 1990's are so faded as to be almost illegible on many pages. Can't explain it, they've been piled up in a cupboard, although when I moved house they probably got a fair jostling in a cardboard box on a long journey, so perhaps a bit of erasure of the pencil lead writing took place?
Had I not been lazy and used a Biro or proper Pen I'd still know what happened between Majorca and Cape Spartivento on a certain date... :ROFLMAO:
 
veshengro said:
I agree, the modern kit is amazing and if I again sailed far enough to unfamiliar waters I would invest in some. My problem is I would need a fairly intense course on how to make proper use of such kit before I would trust myself to understand it and feel safe and confident using it. (y)
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We use perhaps 10% of what our ageing Raymarine with Navionics can do.

By keeping the use to a minimum we then dont lose too many of our lower tech skills.

Over the last 15 years the way we use it has proved very reliable. A fellow club member, who spends all his time putting in waypoints with his plotter bleeping across the marina, has had a couple of narrow squeaks as the resolution he was using omitted depth detail.

We dont get that issue.
 
veshengro said:
A strange fact about log books, well some of mine anyway. I just used ordinary hard backed note books from W H Smith or Woolies and wrote them up with the same soft pencil that I used on the Chart. Now some of the Logs from the 1990's are so faded as to be almost illegible on many pages. Can't explain it, they've been piled up in a cupboard, although when I moved house they probably got a fair jostling in a cardboard box on a long journey, so perhaps a bit of erasure of the pencil lead writing took place?
Had I not been lazy and used a Biro or proper Pen I'd still know what happened between Majorca and Cape Spartivento on a certain date... :ROFLMAO:
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Quite likely to be the acid in the paper of the notebooks causing the fade.
 
Chiara’s slave said:
I don’t write them down, but I’ll certainly have looked up what I am meant to see. I suppose we don’t have to have noted the nearest 20 any more, just the nearest 3. Which makes them easier to commit to memory🤣
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I never had 20 lights listed, more like 4 or 5.

Perhaps because I was only, say, crossing Devon to Brittany, or Cornwall to the Isles of Scilly, and I generally operate on the basis (learnt from a Tom Cunliffe book, but so obvious when you think about it) that most of the time you don't need to know exactly where you are, just where you are not!

I certainly wouldn't want to depend on memory for light characteristics (other than maybe one or two I regularly use). It's so unreliable (and even more so as I age), especially if you are tired, which is what I would usually be on such a trip (especially in a small boat and/or single-handed).

I would also usually prefer to identify the characteristics of a light from watching and timing it, and only then compare that to the chart or my list of key lights. Otherwise there's a risk that one will misinterpret it as what you're expecting to see.
 
capnsensible said:
A friend of mine who built a sucession of catamarans in his back garden ....huge.......used to DR and EP his way across the Cannel dozens of times using the Admiralty Tidal Stream Atlas. Tip. Use a soft pencil.
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I've often said you need to be careful not to go too far into modern stuff. We still take a bearing as we leave and head for it, using the chart plotter for any correction needed as we get to the other side. The last few times we've seen people obviously just using plotters to sail a 'straight line'. The classic channel 'S' will always be the best way.
Allan
 
LittleSister said:
He knew pretty well where he was (weather permitting).

He just didn't know where anything else was until he'd mapped it or bumped into it! 😀
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I had two teachers who stood out when I was at school. A geography teacher who was a member of the Long Range Desert Patrol and a geology teacher who worked for an oil company. Both spent a great deal of time mapping where they were and said it was quite fun. The geologist then went on to add the geology to the map.
 
You don't need technology to navigate with. If going from Dover to Calais it is simple enough. If a ferry passes your right shoulder, turn ten degrees to starboard, if past your left shoulder, ten to port. You might end up in Ostend, but at least you'll get somewhere. I also have a distance-off formula tucked away somewhere based on the overall length of any fishing boats seen nearby. And a simple clue - if you hear dogs barking, go a bit slower.
 
Allan said:
I've often said you need to be careful not to go too far into modern stuff. We still take a bearing as we leave and head for it, using the chart plotter for any correction needed as we get to the other side. The last few times we've seen people obviously just using plotters to sail a 'straight line'. The classic channel 'S' will always be the best way.
Allan
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The classic S is perfect for halfmarans. If we’re heading for Cherbourg, we’ll usually have to offset, unless by coincidence we have half the tide each way. It’s usually a close reach for us, so we might easily be at 12-15kn, making it a 5 hour passage, mooring to mooring.
 
Sandy said:
I had two teachers who stood out when I was at school. A geography teacher who was a member of the Long Range Desert Patrol and a geology teacher who worked for an oil company. Both spent a great deal of time mapping where they were and said it was quite fun. The geologist then went on to add the geology to the map.
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In my professional life I sometimes added completely imaginary things to maps. Then a few years later, if things went well, they would magically appear in actuality! 😀
 
Wansworth said:
Helped a wayward sailor deliver his Wharram from Vigo to Lisbon……..lucky it was a downwind gale or the mast would have given way,stiillvery comfortable sleeping😂
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I helped a not noticeably wayward sailor deliver his newly purchased second-hand Wharram (about 26ft?) from Cowes to Yarmouth. against a stiff westerly. One of the rudders broke off somewhere in the region of the Calshot shore on one of our first tacks. We were henceforth unable to maintain our course to windward under sail. I assumed we'd scuttle back to Cowes in the circumstances, but it was decided we'd press on. Its outboard proved just about able to propel and steer us westward in the teeth of the wind, but boy was it a wet ride!

Prior to the trip I'd been told the new owner (I'd not met before) was intending to subsequently sail it to his home in Ireland, and thinking that sounded a fun adventure I'd been minded to offer to crew for him on that trip if he wanted. Having arrived in Yarmouth minus a rudder and sodden, and having noted the diminutive size of the internal accommodation (and I cruised a 17 footer monohull at the time!) and complete absence of shelter on deck, I thought better of it.
 
LittleSister said:
I helped a not noticeably wayward sailor deliver his newly purchased second-hand Wharram (about 26ft?) from Cowes to Yarmouth. against a stiff westerly. One of the rudders broke off somewhere in the region of the Calshot shore on one of our first tacks. We were henceforth unable to maintain our course to windward under sail. I assumed we'd scuttle back to Cowes in the circumstances, but it was decided we'd press on. Its outboard proved just about able to propel and steer us westward in the teeth of the wind, but boy was it a wet ride!

Prior to the trip I'd been told the new owner (I'd not met before) was intending to subsequently sail it to his home in Ireland, and thinking that sounded a fun adventure I'd been minded to offer to crew for him on that trip if he wanted. Having arrived in Yarmouth minus a rudder and sodden, and having noted the diminutive size of the internal accommodation (and I cruised a 17 footer monohull at the time!) and complete absence of shelter on deck, I thought better of it.
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Wharrams, whilst design wise are fine, they are clearly only as well engineered as their builder knew how/could afford. Open deck cats, what can I say🤣 Been there, with the Woods Strider. It was what we could afford at the time. Tris are better for accomodation til you get to 35ft, unless you don’t care about sailing to windward. By the sound of that Wharram, you did the right thing.
 
Chiara’s slave said:
Wharrams, whilst design wise are fine, they are clearly only as well engineered as their builder knew how/could afford. Open deck cats, what can I say🤣 Been there, with the Woods Strider. It was what we could afford at the time. Tris are better for accomodation til you get to 35ft, unless you don’t care about sailing to windward. By the sound of that Wharram, you did the right thing.
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One sailed round the world,.dontrecall the name of the builder owner a young chap…..”cooking fat”?
 
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