Lat & Long of Nav Marks to use as waypoints ?

Some marks have to be looked up as the chart is not accurate, entrance buoys to rivers like the Deben etc. Even if you mark them on your chart you are relying on Trinity's data. Common sense should prevail even on forums.
 
I too use marks lots of the time. I tend to click on them on the chart rather than inputting then from an almanac. If situation or visibility make it likely that I'll bump into another boat I'd try for a passage plan which has me in the pub rather than at sea, and if at sea I'd be engaged in all sorts of avoidance tactics beyond this discussion. As someone who uses a laptop for nav, I also reckon with the possibility of it failing at any moment. I like having marks in the handheld gps as bearing and distance are a piss easy way of working out where you are on a paper chart. (And yes, I have the compass roses in too.)

I don't think the original post was a silly question.
 
Amulet said:
I too use marks lots of the time. I tend to click on them on the chart rather than inputting then from an almanac. If situation or visibility make it likely that I'll bump into another boat I'd try for a passage plan which has me in the pub rather than at sea, and if at sea I'd be engaged in all sorts of avoidance tactics beyond this discussion. As someone who uses a laptop for nav, I also reckon with the possibility of it failing at any moment. I like having marks in the handheld gps as bearing and distance are a piss easy way of working out where you are on a paper chart. (And yes, I have the compass roses in too.)

I don't think the original post was a silly question.
Click to expand...

listen to this man

he speaks good sense

and in the fog I am hovering over the shallow stuff to keep those tankers away
 
A fisherman left the pub in Scilly and set off for Helford, left the GPS to steer the boat and fell asleep, only waking up when the boat hit the buoy ten miles S of Falmouth used as a waypoint. You can slag him off all you like, he's no longer with us.
 
Plus 1 for the Yeoman- brilliant piece of kit
i do not use marks anymore having just missed a french fishing boat in very ( & i mean very) thick fog
Fortunately the fishing boat skipper was steering by standing on deck with his hand through the wheelhouse & we passed within 20 feet of the buoy at the same time. He was laughing at the time as i suspect he may have had us on radar & could have been expecting us. The wife took it a little more seriously.

Because I go to Ostend a lot I have a route permanently set. I have one waypoint on the end of the Gunfleet sand & one on the end of the Longsand. Sailing single handed I have no problem - just keep to one side & watch the echo sounder, the GPS just gives me a rough check.
However, in 5 trips with my family they have managed to run me aground on the Gunfleet (where there is a little spit N of the old lighthouse) on a total of 4 occassions.
It does not matter how much i tell them that a GPS is an aid & not the be end & end all to navigation
Use the b..y chart, the echo sounder & your eyes --they still blindly follow it up the sand bank.
I totally refuse to move the waypoint out of shear cussidness. Plus it makes for a really heated arguement every Xmas
 
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To answer the question without telling the OP that he should be starting with another viewpoint.If you use Seaclear with your own in-date chart scans you can rapidly enter the waypoints of buoys by making a zig zag route that includes all the buoys in an area and load this in a minute onto your handheld.You can then use 'go-to' to establish and identify such marks and pass as close or clear as you wish using the chart or a print out from it as you go.
 
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