Pilotage Done Properly

[OCuea]

It is all relative (to this or that) as most posts point out. All I can say is I was being examined for yacht master commercial many years ago (just me ….. no one else to take the blame) and novice crew and tutor of chartered boat were leaving the berth and making for open sea whilst I had been told to go below and create the plan for the actual voyage. Having yachtmaster theory under my belt I was using the tidal diamonds and the whole hog - no electronics allowed ( not what I’d do if I was on my own or with a mate). I heard the novice crew (stock broker or maybe a hedge fund type) say ‘ why is he taking so long?’ and boat tutor (not owner or instructor , a substitute teacher sort of person and rather nasty who was standing in for yacht schools proper instructor) said some derogatory comment (he expected back of fag packet plan). Plan was written down ( I used carbon copy paper….. one copy on chart table , one in pocket……. Later the novice was at the chart table pondering and he asked what these funny symbols were and I told him they were tidal diamonds and what they were for ….. he got the idea of why I was taking so long. BEFORE all that official stuff I was a self taught sailor in a dinghy (with 2helps from a good man at the local sailing club - diamond person). Many mistakes made and then races won. First little cruiser and my self taught pilotage (with many pbo magazines read) out to sea was simple common sense ….. but still a bit OTT for my known waters ….. a piece of paper in conjunction with chart telling me what compass bearing to use at what buoy or whatever and depth of water at that time….. 3 things only really…… much more enjoyable and I felt safe (but I was on known waters…… I could really have sailed without any paper or thinking at all ….. but I too am a proper p p p p p person. Future cruises involved a new fangled expensive thing called a handheld gps that I used in combo with chart and I cut corners to save time and across shallows (knowing what the time was). It was so simple then and handheld compass didn’t come topside. I still have 3 Magellan handhelds in pristine condition and 2 geko handhelds and an aviation Bluetooth super gps system in dry storage. There is a joy to really proper pilotage and there is also a pain to it depending on the day or mood perhaps

 

[zoidberg]

What's the most challenging piece of pilotage you've successfully undertaken? Salcombe doesn't count....

Let me offer Chenal du Relec then Chenal Meridional de Portsall, in fog, with a brandy hangover...

 

[OCuea]

What's the most challenging piece of pilotage you've successfully undertaken? Salcombe doesn't count....

Let me offer Chenal du Relec then Chenal Meridional de Portsall, in fog, with a brandy hangover...

Not by me but I reckon submarine pilotage must be the most difficult….. you can’t even see for flippin sake

 

[Mark-1]

What's the most challenging piece of pilotage you've successfully undertaken? Salcombe doesn't count....

Let me offer Chenal du Relec then Chenal Meridional de Portsall, in fog, with a brandy hangover...

One of the truely remote West Coast of Scotland Anchorages. Not sure which one.

Honorable mention though is the Stockholm Archipealago in the Baltic. It's not "difficult" becaise it's all bouyed/marked but it's relentless. On day one I was delighted, I really enjoy pilotage and a solid day non stop was a treat. Half way through day two I felt I'd done enough pilotage for a while. Beautiful place though. I won't go back because Scotland is twice as good for a 5th of the price, but glad I did it.

I once left St Malo in proper fog, but I was crew, and the Radar made it easy despite the rocks and in the event of disaster help wouldn't have been far away so doesn't really count.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

About peaks!

First of all, it is perfectly correct to note that the peak marked on an OS map may not be visible from the sea; the slopes of many hills are convex upwards, so the peak is not visible from the level of the base of the hill. Just for example, the peak of Ben Nevis is notoriously not visible from Fort William, the nearest point at sea level.

HOWEVER!

A peak marked on a CHART, especially one annotated with an elevation, WILL be visible from the sea; the information on a chart is selected to be useful for navigation. and there is no point in marking a peak unless that peak is useful for navigation.

Also, the old-fashioned coastal drawings were very useful; similar drawings and photographs in pilot books remain useful.

Personally, I prefer to use the edges of islands or headlands but it's a while since I've needed to. But navigation using clearing lines and leading marks is an esential skill on the West Cosat; buoys are few and far between!

 

[capnsensible]

What's the most challenging piece of pilotage you've successfully undertaken? Salcombe doesn't count....

Let me offer Chenal du Relec then Chenal Meridional de Portsall, in fog, with a brandy hangover...

Those places on the west coast of France can certainly be wicked. Asked Mrs S to take us from Guernsey ( watched Man Utd win Champions League) to a marina over the water from Brest. She really enjoyed the fast passage down the Chanel du Four.....hangovers gone by then. Good viz and brisk following winds under headsail only. Certainly concentrates the mind if you are on your liveaboard yacht with all your worldly possessions.

Only time I've ever turned around and waited was in a tropical rainstorm entering Nuku H8va harbour in the Marquesas. The entrance is between two cliffs. Could hardly see beyond the bow so no visual clues and GPS certainly isn't wonderful there. Steep to and deep water so echo sounder not much use either. Stooged around, drank tea, went in mebbe two hours later.

Swing that lamp!

 

[capnsensible]

About peaks!

First of all, it is perfectly correct to note that the peak marked on an OS map may not be visible from the sea; the slopes of many hills are convex upwards, so the peak is not visible from the level of the base of the hill. Just for example, the peak of Ben Nevis is notoriously not visible from Fort William, the nearest point at sea level.

HOWEVER!

A peak marked on a CHART, especially one annotated with an elevation, WILL be visible from the sea; the information on a chart is selected to be useful for navigation. and there is no point in marking a peak unless that peak is useful for navigation.

Also, the old-fashioned coastal drawings were very useful; similar drawings and photographs in pilot books remain useful.

Personally, I prefer to use the edges of islands or headlands but it's a while since I've needed to. But navigation using clearing lines and leading marks is an esential skill on the West Cosat; buoys are few and far between!

If anyone absolutely insists on using a peak.....as I'm sure you know, tilting a handbearing compass can introduce errors. Is possible to imagine a vertical line extending down to the sea from a charted elevation and use that. But I certainly wouldn't rely on it in close quarters....and never will!

 

[zoidberg]

There is, of course, the once well-known pilotage skill of 'Touch And Go'.... but that's an East Coast 'secret sauce' not many West Coasters will have practised!

 

[Lucky Duck]

If I was being paid by the word I would defiantly add a long paragraph on 3D models!

Salcombe is really well buoyed, it wouldn't be my first choice example of a a challenging entrance. Before the kids ruined enhanced my life I used to actively seek out challenging pilotage and, for me as a soft South-coaster, challenging pilotage is the remote places in Scotland without man made navaids where you go in on on a transit on 'the tallest of the three mountain tops' or 'the slightly lighter patch of gravel'. But the mountain tops look bloody identical heights and there seem an infinite number of light gravel patches. And the thing you identified as a white rock gets up and flies away. Oh yeah, and some of the charted rocks are apocryphal and when you row over to check one seems to exist and one seems not to.

I’ve often found a night time approach (say on a Friday evening) has ‘livened up’ on an otherwise more routine Lake Solent passage

 

[newtothis]

Who do you think put the 'Conspicuous Rock' there in the first place for us to aim at? (Ok, that might have been Slartibartfast rather than the Almighty.)

I think @AntarcticPilot will confirm that the creator of 'Conspicuous Rock' was none other than geological forces.