GPS plots a Rhumb Line or Great Circle?

[Anonymous]

[ QUOTE ]
Or, of course, he just turns on his radio homing device

[/ QUOTE ]Yes, those little local PLBs to help the helmsman locate a MOB look like a terrific idea. I looked at one at LIBS 06 - does anyone have any experience (other than that they are jolly expensive)?

 

[Va2shp]

Re: GPS plots a Rhumb Line or Great Circle?

So, if we plot a route from say, near The turks and Caicos, (20d 52m N 70d 57m W), to the middle of the entrance to the Channel, (49d 11m N 5d 14m W), the rhumb line course and distance are:

062T 3648 Nm

It would be interesting to see what other peoples plotters and GPS suggest as the course and distance for the above route?

ISTR passing fairly close to Bermuda on a Great Circle route.

SOB software says:

"Great Circle, Rhumb Line - Rhumb Line is a straight line course on a Mercator chart (C-MAP charts in SOB use the Mercator Projection). RLs follow a constant magnetic heading, and mathematically are known as a "loxodromic" curve.
Great Circle courses represent the shortest distance between two geographic locations, but require a continuous change in the ship's heading."

Using My B&G Zeus2 which has the integrated GPS and the option to go back and forth between Great Cicle and Rumb Line I get the following
Great Circle 3517 Nautical Miles and a courte of 044 True
Rumb Line 3590 Nautical Miles and a course of 062 True

 

[Sandyman]

Re: GPS plots a Rhumb Line or Great Circle?

Just under 10 years to reply.................must be a record

 

[KellysEye]

Ccossing the the Atlantic we had a Mercator chart which shows a curved course as a straight line so all I did was put our destination in the GPS.