Popeye & Olive
New Member
I can think of worse places to fetch up.
Still get a slight cringe, remembering skipping through and out the casino at half past stupid o'clock in the morning : ( ha ha!
Course to steer for crossing the channel
- Thread starter FairweatherDave
- Start date
Still get a slight cringe, remembering skipping through and out the casino at half past stupid o'clock in the morning : ( ha ha!
DJE
Well-Known Member
One more thing. The tides down the back of the island have significant North-South components so there is a lot to be gained by going with them. If I was you I would do my best to be at Bembridge Ledge an hour or two before HW Portsmouth on the way out. The ebb then gives you a hearty shove to the SW.
Lucky Duck
Well-Known Member
And try and avoid being near that stretch of the IoW around that time when crossing back from France!
Sybarite
Well-Known Member
Simple solution : U.K. to France. Head South and vice versa.
iLens
Well-Known Member
Is the central Channel cardinal mark (a lanby I think) still there? I can't find it on the Memory-map chart - just at "seasonal" yellow buoy at 50.20.34N, 1.29.12W
BelleSerene
Well-Known Member
Well, that's a really good question - I can't find it either! There used to be one called 'EC2', I think.
OK, a quick search shows [ http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?8901-EC2-BUOY ] that it's been gone for many years! I only updated my Channel charts last year; I guess the previous ones still had it marked. And there was me worrying about my 'S' curve washing me into a non-existent exclusion zone! Thank you.
capnsensible
Well-Known Member
Here is a nice explanation with pictures.
http://blog.blacknellsatsea.co.uk/navigating-english-channel/#.WoWmIq5l_IU
Its been quite a while since I sailed across the channel but do remember EC1, 2 and 3. Saw EC2 quite a few times.
Also the sonic boom from Concorde.
And fog.
But there again I can also (just) remember when Starboard Hand Markers were black and Wreck Buoys were green!
http://blog.blacknellsatsea.co.uk/navigating-english-channel/#.WoWmIq5l_IU
Its been quite a while since I sailed across the channel but do remember EC1, 2 and 3. Saw EC2 quite a few times.
Also the sonic boom from Concorde.
And fog.
But there again I can also (just) remember when Starboard Hand Markers were black and Wreck Buoys were green!
capnsensible
Well-Known Member
PS' heard' the boom....
Angele
Well-Known Member
Well, actually....
Whilst the buoy has (I believe) gone, I think the Area to be Avoided is still shown on the charts. I don't have the latest paper charts for that area, but it is still there on the set I do have (minus the buoy).
BelleSerene
Well-Known Member
Hilarious.
I couldn't find that Area to be Avoided on Navionics WebApp this afternoon. It used to be somewhere roughly between the IoW and Cherbourg?
Angele
Well-Known Member
When I still lived on Jersey, every evening our windows would rattle. Same time every evening. "Ah! Concorde just passed".
Angele
Well-Known Member
Well, I will admit to having passed through it a few times*. I wasn't arrested or struck by lightning, so I doubt you will be either.
I don't have the charts in front of me, but the interweb says EC2 was at 50 deg 12 N, 1 deg 12 W - 40 nm NE of Cap de la Hague.
* not deliberately, I might add. At that point in the channel, I am usually fairly well zoomed out with the chartplotter. The Area to be Avoided only shows up when I zoom well in. So, I usually only realise that is what I have done when looking at the tracks on my plotter from previous trips.
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johnalison
Well-Known Member
Crossing the Channel and finding Cherbourg is easy enough. I usually find that the difficult bit starts when I get to the entrance in the dark and try to find the lights for the inner rade against all the other lights. These days my route takes me to a WP at the inner rade and marina entrance.
Dutch01527
Well-Known Member
Normal Merchant Navy practice is ( or at least was in the 1980’s when I was a navigating officer) to keep the ship on the course plotted on the chart. Crossing an ocean that meant daily alterations of course to allow the ship to sail a great circle course (straight line plotted on ocean chart).
When coastal with tide factors course alterations would be made every hour maybe to keep on the plotted track. My old Captain would have hung me up by my dangly bits if I had been off the plotted course following a S curve. I still follow that approach today, maybe not as efficient but safer because I am on the track I have plotted and checked to be free from danger.
When coastal with tide factors course alterations would be made every hour maybe to keep on the plotted track. My old Captain would have hung me up by my dangly bits if I had been off the plotted course following a S curve. I still follow that approach today, maybe not as efficient but safer because I am on the track I have plotted and checked to be free from danger.
NealB
Well-Known Member
Good grief: you either haven't been reading, or understanding, this thread have you?
As has been mentioned several times, by several contributors, you obviously do not just blindly follow the S-curve.
It is essential to check beforehand that it is safe to do so: but when it IS safe (as on many cross channel passages), then it IS unarguably more efficient, and arguably more seamanlike.
East Cardinal
Well-Known Member
Which is what I was trying to say at post#32. Keep your head down now Dutch!
NealB
Well-Known Member
Ok ... it must be me who is missing something.
Can you please explain why you need to stick to a line drawn on your chart, if you have diligently checked that there are no dangers within a safe distance either side of that line?
Please explain why, in a small, slow, boat, you advocate making a passage longer than it need be?
I'm beginning to think that the only reason is that it is simply unquestioning acceptance of what was ingrained into you, and then enforced by fairly strict discipline.
It seems to me to have absolutely nothing to do with being a thinking, prudent, navigator.
But I'll be very grateful if you can convince me otherwise.
Bobc
Well-Known Member
Indeed, but people on here love making mountains out of mole-hills
East Cardinal
Well-Known Member
I’ll have a go, but will have to agree to disagree I think in the end.
Navigation is determining where your vessel is and where it will be in the future.
Following a pre determined nav track allows this.
Steering a set course and allowing the tide and wind to move you, then plotting a historic position is not.
I am prepared to accept that in a slow moving boat crossing at right angles to a varying tidal stream direction is more efficient in time.
But my experience has been different to yours obviously, and I prefer to know exactly where I am and where I will be in future.
Navigating through the Solent at 30 kn at night doesn’t allow for error in position.
Drifting across the channel to Cherbourg at 5kn, I could live with your S curve stuff.
Obviously Dutch and I had similar Captains!
Tonight’s toast to you all “A bloody war or a sickly season”
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Angele
Well-Known Member
Historically, If you were in charge of a warship, it would have made a lot of sense running down the same line every time you go from A to B. The chance of hitting an unchartered rock becomes vanishingly small once you have done the same route a few hundred times.
As we know, if you hit a rock, or run a submarine into a beach, it is a severely career limiting move..... or maybe not.
As we know, if you hit a rock, or run a submarine into a beach, it is a severely career limiting move..... or maybe not.
