Bouys as way points!!!

[pcatterall]

I always laugh when I hear about the dangers of ramming your waypoint!!
I have, however selected some way points 100m off bouys as the confirm my gps position and can form a good eyeball point to steer ( nearly) at.
A case in point is N Hoyle bouy which I had a way point near on night passage from Conwy to Liverpool ( my way point was a little south of the buoy) There was no moon but fair vis. For some reason I was not particularly looking for the buoy nor steering religiously on the plotted course. By chance I scanned the sea ahead through the binos and there it was about 50 yards off my port bow I watched it for a few minutes and confirm that it was unlit, quite a shock. I cant expalin why I was not looking out for the buoy some distance away, I was keeping a good lookout but really for lights.
A bit of a wake up lesson for me!! I was a bit embarrased in case I had missed a warning about the buoy but Liverpool
coastguard say they were not aware that it was not on on that night so another puzzle.
Anyone else seen or ( rather) not seen it?
Regards

 

[MarkJohnson12345]

I was crossing the channel a few years ago(2004) and saw what I thought was a red light what seemed to be a couple of hundred yards away.

A bit alarming to say the least, it took me quite a few minutes to realise it was the lighthouse 25 miles away on Ouessant.

Being tired was not helful, but at least I saw it before it was in contention!!

Mj

 

[BobnLesley]

...it took me quite a few minutes to realise it was the lighthouse 25 miles away...

I've been there: Having departed from Sete in France at 0200 (a long and different story) and heading NE I came across west and south cardinal marks and could see the NC mark away to port. I turned to clear the S Cardinal and continued east to pass the east cardinal, before returning to my original track; the chart suggesting that this would be about 2M. I motored for almost seven (becoming increasingly concerned) before realising that the cardinal was either unlit or I'd missed it and that what I was actualy steering for was a lighthouse on the far side of the Golfe D'Aigues Morte. Doh!

 

[johnalison]

Not a buoy, but a couple of weeks ago I was motoring in thick fog with the radar on and alarmed to see a stationary echo dead ahead. When we got close I could see nothing at all, until the waypoint alarm went at 0.1 mile; I nearly collided with my waypoint marker!

 

[BlueSkyNick]

I much prefer to set up the waypoints as the actual mark then aim to miss them by a sensible, than to know that my waypoint is some distance off but not sure how far or in what direction. To me, that means the waypoint could be somewhere in a couple of hundred yards radius of the mark.

On a seperate point, I have also discovered that some of the racing marks in the Solent are a couple of hundred yards away from their charted position. This is according to the info provided by the clubs, anyway.

 

[planteater]

Satellite Assisted Collisions!

The 21st century navigational hazard.

 

[LadyInBed]

'set up the waypoints as the actual mark' - that would give me the shudders.
I go with the 100 yds school on the 'safe' side of the mark, so I can use them in a 'Auto' route.
And they are always temporary WP's till I have been to them, then I know I can use them in any conditions.

 

[pcatterall]

Well Im glad I had not put the buoy position as the actual way point. In future I will give any waypoint which is near a 'hard object' a special name to warn me to be on the lookout.

 

[planteater]

[ QUOTE ]
Well Im glad I had not put the buoy position as the actual way point. In future I will give any waypoint which is near a 'hard object' a special name to warn me to be on the lookout.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not only "hard objects" but compass roses or other chart markers attract boats using them as GPS waypoint. You may not hit the buoy but you should consider any such mark as an "attractor" for other vessels.

 

[William_H]

Yes when GPS became the thing with aviation it became a problem that there was just one precise course between 2 airports. A recipe for collision. The GPS sets sometimes have a 1 mile off set L or R of the shortest track.
I find that GPS is only an aid to eyeball navigation but then we don't get fogs. As for racing marks yes 50 metres is a pretty expectation of accuracy in practice. olewill

 

[BlueSkyNick]

Sorry, I should clarify. Setting up waypoints as part of a list in the GPS, they are on the exact location. This way, I don't have to think about how far my waypoint is away from the physical mark.

When I set a route by clicking on the chart (maptech on the PC), which is my preferrred method, I aim to miss marks and hard stuff by a sensible distance.

One thing I never do is set a course based on a list of waypoints, and leave the autohelm to take me there. I set the AH to a heading which gives me the required COG for the next WP then reset it when I get there.


When closing on a WP we are always looking out by eyeball, anyway.

Nothing to shudder about. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif