Magnetic flip

[jimi]

Did anyone see the dicumentary which said scientists say that the indications are that we're due for a magnetic pole reversal at anytime? It got me wondering about what the conequences might be. Presumably compasses would be exceedingly unreliable, steering to the compass, dangerous but what about other things?

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[claymore]

I was too busy seeing what a mess Seroxat is making of me.
To get to the point, I hardly see how its relevant, as long as they don't move things like the Island of Mull, or Scarba or Jura then how can it make a difference. I really do feel that you can get too involved in the technical sometimes and lose valuable perspective.
I could substantiate this claim by asking you to consider weather forecasting. Back in the old days we used to have Pilots flying their aeroplanes in from America etc and they would ring up the weather forecasters and tell them what was happening - comments like 'its pissing down here and we have a tailwind' don't take much to interpret and tend to give an accurate forecast.
Along came the computer and then because of glare etc, all the weather forecasters, including that rather pretty little Helen Willets are cooped up indoors all day and don't get the chance to have a look outside and see what its doing. Furthermore - weather lore is a thing of the past - when did you last hear M.Fish say 'rain at 7 fine by 11' for example?
What they do do is talk about how bad the weather has been all day - which we knew anyway - or give some load of old bunk about occlusions which are seldom correct.
To conclude - imagine the situation - we are out sailing and you ask 'what is the course Skip?' (Note due deference to rank) and I say ' that big white house up there' - there now what difference would a compass make eh - go on, answer me that.
QED

<hr width=100% size=1>regards
Claymore
/forums/images/icons/smile.gif

 

[upstream]

Yes I saw that, I thought It was quite interesting but I sometimes wonder as to what they mean by this "flip" at any time. If we are talking about the evolution and the day, hour, minute, time frames, this could be in reality thousands, millions of years. I think for my part, I shall have a worry when the compass takes me south of the equator when pointing north. Maybe I will get that southern cruise sooner than planned.
Maybe the magnetic compass has had its day and the new breed of navigation by satalite, and yet to be invented systems will be the prime means of navigation and paper charts will become a thing of the past.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[jimi]

Historically it seems that there has been this flip overy 200,000 or so years, its now 750,000 since the last flip, but when it last happened it seems there were many magnetic anomolies, culminating in a change of 6 degees per day.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[bedouin]

Don't forget that we are talking about geological time here - so any time now means in the next 100,000 yrs or so.

Also - although the geologists regard this effect as instantaneous, it could easily take a couple of thousand years

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[bigmart]

How come you got home in a condition to watch telly. I've got two kids off school today cos they couldn't take the strain of the weekend. All I could do was collapse in a snotty heap & snore when I got home. Come tell me whats your secret?

Martin

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Twister_Ken]

Egg flip

>To conclude - imagine the situation - we are out sailing and you ask 'what is the course Skip?' (Note due deference to rank) and I say ' that big white house up there'<

Hmmm, you're obvioulsy not a yachtmaster. You're supposed to say "That big white house up there, bearing 333.23 degrees compass, but allow an extra 6.47 degrees for leeway, and 2.98 degrees for the cross-course component of the tide. Now let's see, east is beast and west is lest, so a gnat's cock north of nor-nor-west-by-a-half-north should do it."

Any way, if compass flip is like egg flip, I won't like it.

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.writeforweb.com/twister1>Let's Twist Again</A>

 

[claymore]

Re: Egg flip

As ever - the quiet yet authoritative voice of reason. Thank you for that my boy. I am asking one of the girls in the office to return all my many qualifications to the respective authorities. By 8 bells I should be a paper free environment.

<hr width=100% size=1>regards
Claymore
/forums/images/icons/smile.gif

 

[chriscallender]

Seems to me this magnetic flip buisness would be a good thing all round, after all it means that I can spend longer out on the boat with a perfect excuse for not being able to find the way home, and will probably come across all sorts of good harbours that I would otherwise never have considered visiting. Additionally it would also take away the need to buy all those overpriced chart thingies since there would be no point in plotting a course on them. RYA theory courses could also be greatly simplified if the outdated compass was removed from the syllabus.

Chris

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[AndrewB]

Steering to the COMPASS !?!?!

Isn't that what people had to do in the dark and distant days of the 20th Century?

Plumb the GPS into the autopilot and let technology take the strain, Jimi!

 

[Evadne]

Re: Steering to the COMPASS !?!?!

I prefer the Blondie Haslar approach ... sail south 'til the butter melts then turn right. I've never sailed to Barbados, though, is it cheaper than Beaulieu?

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[tcm]

Ooh. Will this makes any difference to watches? It might be have started already!

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Ohdrat]

Re: Actually....

One of the Geologists has evidence that the poles switched twice in 24 hours! So one minute you could be heading "south" and then 12 hours later "north" without changing your course..

Apparently during the actual flipping process there will be lots of anomolies and refering to North and South could be utterly futile /forums/images/icons/crazy.gif

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[BrendanS]

Don't throw away charts, just them with GPS.

New focus in RYA training on electronic navigation.

Scenes of weeping and knashing of teeth, as crusty old salts ("never rely on electronics, you never know when they might fail"), wrench out now useless compasses, and replace with shiny new GPS (after a 12 month wait due to excess demands on available stock)

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[jimi]

Re: Steering to the COMPASS !?!?!

Know what you mean ... but .. its not very efficient is it? On a cross channel doing that could add up to 25 percent to the passage time. I like to work out a course to steer taking into account tidal offset/forums/images/icons/smile.gif

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[TheBoatman]

OMG Jimi you could become a "Southerner" Heaven forbid, has the world gone mad.
What are all those jokers in the Solent gonna do when their compasses point in the wrong direction for the pubs, everyone knows that Solent sailors only use a compass because all pubs lay to the north.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Twister_Ken]

Late night Channel 5 was it?

>Did anyone see the dicumentary<

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.writeforweb.com/twister1>Let's Twist Again</A>

 

[AndrewB]

Oh no! Don\'t tell me ...

.... you are still doing that thing with pencils, plotters and tidal diamonds. How 1980's!!!

Naturally I assumed you had your COURSE COMPUTER plumbed into the GPS and the Auto Pilot.

 

[jimi]

Captains Log flushed successfully

Och Andrew, Ah'm no in the starship Entrerprise ye ken, its jist a wee sailing boat. Ah spend all week wi' them computer thingies at work and Ah'm jist glad tae get awa fae the electronic 'effers. And ah must confess ah'm a hardware disaster sae the soddin' things wouldnae work or if they did ah wid be hauf way tae Reykavik when ah meant tae be in Santander..

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[claymore]

Re: Captains Log flushed successfully

Jamesie
Fer a feller wha disnae like tae move awa frae the humble 2B an they parallels - youse did seem tae tak a shine tae ma wee lappytop an they saftwares wi ra ootline o' the yeller bits an ra wee piccie o' ra boat an they lines o' whaur we'd bin an whaur we wiz aff tae, ah'm thinkin - youse an' Para baith?

<hr width=100% size=1>regards
Claymore
/forums/images/icons/smile.gif