Distances and your personal log

[MedMan]

1. You sail a boat through water, not over the land.
2. The RYA exams have been in existence since long before GPS or Decca.
3. When working towards an RYA exam you record your voyages in a Personal Log under a column headed 'Distance Logged'
4. The instructions in the RYA Log say: "You must record the distance sailed (by the log) in tidal waters in the open sea outside natural or artificial harbours in which it would be possible to secure or anchor for a prolonged period."

There's no doubt in my mind - you record the distance taken from your log i.e. the distance travelled through the water.

 

[fireball]

Why do ppl assume GPS's are stupid ...

If you travel from A 2 A most GPS's (including my £100 Etrex) will record DOG (distance over ground) and certainly doesn't start taking it off if you go back towards your start point.

The only time it would give you 0Nm is when you take the distance from a route, put in A and A and no waypoints inbetween.

As has been said above (somewhere) it doesn't make significant difference if you record GPS or Water Log as averaged out over the season it will be around the same (approximately, not exactly and not for everyone - usuall disclaimers)

 

[john_morris_uk]

Sorry to take a while to reply but I have been away.[ QUOTE ]
Jusif a candidate deemed the conditions for sailing wherebeyond his abilities and he considerit prudent to wait,what would be an examinas reaction?

[/ QUOTE ] The examiner shouldn't really be asking the candidate to do things that aren't safe. Tasks set should be within the competence of a YM or Coastal Skipper, as appropriate.

I have had a couple of candidates that swallow hard when I ask them to take me up some drying creek or other, but I try to think these things through first... Its not rockets science, and a lot of it is how you take charge of the boat as well as knowing all the theory, Met', IRPCS....

So the short answer is that, if someone says they don't want to do something, I don't believe that its the best way to impress the examiner.

However, if they talk it through and say, I'm worried about sailing off here because I am not sure I'm going to get steerage way before being set on that boat, so I'm going to.... Its all music to the examiners ears, because he/she can see that they've grasped the problem and are thinking in a seaman like way.