runswick2000
Member
This weekend we launched to rescue a yacht aground only to discover that he was 15km from where he said he was!
Have you ever been this lost?
- Thread starter runswick2000
- Start date
bilbobaggins
N/A
[ QUOTE ]
Have you ever been this lost?
[/ QUOTE ]
In the early stages of air navigation training several decades ago, while preparing for our first astro exercise, a wizened Instructor from a Shackleton ASR background declaimed to us 'sprogs' - "If you can plot the intercept onto the BINA ( British Isles and North Atlantic ) Plotting Chart you're using, then you're doing something right. It'll get better with practice......" Only some of us managed that!
A little more than a year later, most of us were nav'ing Vulcan bombers down a lane in the sky just a mile wide, after training trips of 2000nm around the Atlantic on pure astro-navigation, every week. The old hands could slip down a half-mile lane, within 10 seconds of pre-planned time, for the annual NATO Bombing Competitions.....
The most useful 'electronic nav aid' of the first boats I raced on for a couple of seasons was a Consol chart..... Ploneis, Bushmills, Stavanger.
Hands up the three forumeers who remember those!
"GIG!"
/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif
Have you ever been this lost?
[/ QUOTE ]
In the early stages of air navigation training several decades ago, while preparing for our first astro exercise, a wizened Instructor from a Shackleton ASR background declaimed to us 'sprogs' - "If you can plot the intercept onto the BINA ( British Isles and North Atlantic ) Plotting Chart you're using, then you're doing something right. It'll get better with practice......" Only some of us managed that!
A little more than a year later, most of us were nav'ing Vulcan bombers down a lane in the sky just a mile wide, after training trips of 2000nm around the Atlantic on pure astro-navigation, every week. The old hands could slip down a half-mile lane, within 10 seconds of pre-planned time, for the annual NATO Bombing Competitions.....
The most useful 'electronic nav aid' of the first boats I raced on for a couple of seasons was a Consol chart..... Ploneis, Bushmills, Stavanger.
Hands up the three forumeers who remember those!
"GIG!"
/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif
Cornishman
New member
About 25 years ago I was on watch on the Sail Training Ship Tectona (Plymouth School of Maritime Studies). It was a foggy morning but with the sun shining through. We were, if memory serves, about 10 miles SW of St Martin's Point, Guernsey drifting in a Force 1 breeze from who knows where and enjoying a leisurely breakfast when we heard a shout for help. The radar showed an echo about a half mile away so we fired up the Gardner diesel and went to investigate. We found a small French yacht, no sail hoisted and the anchor chain dangling into the sea. He would not believe the position I gave him, until I showed him the island on the radar. They had anchored the previous night in the Little Russel, but clearly had not put down enough cable and the tide had carried him all the way out to sea overnight without his knowledge.
jimi
Well-known member
I had a Dutch colleague who chartered a boat on a flotilla in the Greek Islands. Slept in one morning and the flotilla skipper indicated the headland round which he should head for the next sop point about 10 miles away. Sander set off and after 3 hours was getting anxious cos the headland seemed no neared after 5 hours was worried and could'nt contact anyone on VHF or mobile phone. After 10 hours was escorted into a harbour in mainland Greece by a passing yacht the headland he'd seen was the mountains on mainland Greece 60 miles away whereas the headland pointed at by the flotilla skipper was just a couple of miles away and looked too close! He managed to reestablish contact by phoning the London office of the Charte Co.!
Twister_Ken
Well-known member
Sir Cloudesley Shovell (Google it yourself, if necessary)
jimi
Well-known member
Ran the fleet ashore on the Scillies and led to the competition for an improved timekeeper to more accurately enanble position fixing .. Google not required!
Impaler
Member
Tony Blair or David Cameron?
alldownwind
New member
[ QUOTE ]
This weekend we launched to rescue a yacht aground only to discover that he was 15km from where he said he was!
[/ QUOTE ]
15km? Were you abroad? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
This weekend we launched to rescue a yacht aground only to discover that he was 15km from where he said he was!
[/ QUOTE ]
15km? Were you abroad? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
runswick2000
Member
Not quite, I measured the distance on Memory map which has units set to km!
Humble apologies.....
Humble apologies.....
jamesjermain
Active member
I never cast stones in these situations. I've been lucky in that none of my navigation errors have lead to anything serious - and in my early cruising days there were plenty. Most of them I was able to cover up or I realised my error before anyone else did.
Even now I have the odd senior moment. Very recently I was sailing back west on my own and, for the hell of it, had the electronic nav aids switched off. Towards the end of an 18 hour passage, in the middle of the night, I very nearly turned right for Plymouth at the end of Bolt Tail, which West Country forumites will realise is a very silly thing to do.
Even now I have the odd senior moment. Very recently I was sailing back west on my own and, for the hell of it, had the electronic nav aids switched off. Towards the end of an 18 hour passage, in the middle of the night, I very nearly turned right for Plymouth at the end of Bolt Tail, which West Country forumites will realise is a very silly thing to do.
Twister_Ken
Well-known member
Once in the dear dead days of Decca, we were on our way back from Deauville to the Solent during a thunderstorm. Our Decca posn plotted as a mile or so inland of Brighton. Ever since, obviously wrong plots have been referred to as Cloudesley Shovells
runswick2000
Member
[ QUOTE ]
I never cast stones in these situations.
[/ QUOTE ]
Sharing experiences is not the same as casting stones......there is no judgement implied in my post.
John
I never cast stones in these situations.
[/ QUOTE ]
Sharing experiences is not the same as casting stones......there is no judgement implied in my post.
John
jamesjermain
Active member
Sorry John, I didn't mean to imply you, or anyone else on this thread did. It was just a lead-in line to a sily anecdote.
ccscott49
Active member
Me, me me sir!!! I used consol!! Had an old EMI radio with the correct crystals, wasnt that bad either!
Half of this lot havent even used DECCA! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
Half of this lot havent even used DECCA! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
Gunfleet
New member
My f-in-law, now alas dead, was a WWII pilot. He missed England entirely when his instruments went down in cloud and landed eventually (and relieved) on the Curragh!
TiggerToo
Well-known member
[ QUOTE ]
Towards the end of an 18 hour passage, in the middle of the night, I very nearly turned right for Plymouth at the end of Bolt Tail, which West Country forumites will realise is a very silly thing to do.
[/ QUOTE ]
...breakfast in Hope Cove?
Towards the end of an 18 hour passage, in the middle of the night, I very nearly turned right for Plymouth at the end of Bolt Tail, which West Country forumites will realise is a very silly thing to do.
[/ QUOTE ]
...breakfast in Hope Cove?
runswick2000
Member
My Grandfather as not as lucky. In 1940 over Calais he turned right rather than left at Sangat, got hit by flack and spent the next 5 years as a POW!
jamesjermain
Active member
More likely lunch stranded on Burgh Island
Cornishman
New member
Oooh! I dunno, JJ. You could have anchored in Hope Cove and paid your respects to the late, great Des who used to live there. Anyway, you aren't old enough to be having senior moments yet. Must be summat else.
HoratioHB
New member
'The most useful 'electronic nav aid' of the first boats I raced on for a couple of seasons was a Consol chart..... Ploneis, Bushmills, Stavanger.
Hands up the three forumeers who remember those!'
Yup me too - Consul and Loran - lots of dots and dashes I seem to remember.
I also managed to skip decca lanes when navigating one of Her Majesties grey war canoes back from France to Plymouth as Second Officer of the Watch. The skipper came on the bridge and asked me where the Eddystone light was and I said well on the starboard bow, without thinking - cos that was what the fixes on my chart said. Of course this would have meant we were steaming directly for Falmouth and was not the answer he was expecting. A very interesting one way conversation then ensued - must have been at least 15Km.
Hands up the three forumeers who remember those!'
Yup me too - Consul and Loran - lots of dots and dashes I seem to remember.
I also managed to skip decca lanes when navigating one of Her Majesties grey war canoes back from France to Plymouth as Second Officer of the Watch. The skipper came on the bridge and asked me where the Eddystone light was and I said well on the starboard bow, without thinking - cos that was what the fixes on my chart said. Of course this would have meant we were steaming directly for Falmouth and was not the answer he was expecting. A very interesting one way conversation then ensued - must have been at least 15Km.