Seat of pants navigation

Wansworth

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Not being particularly bright arithmetic wise my navigation is more based on knowledgecleaned from the chart and keeping off nasty bits and waiting for daylight being aware of where I am,of course a simple log and compass bearings add info and asking the occasional fisherman where I am?
 

DownWest

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Reminds me of the Mayor of a certain S Coast resort, that had a bunch of guests on his mobo for a cross channel trip. Bit misty and after several hours, he saw a fishing boat and asked, in his best (pidgen)French how far was Calais. The reply, in rough southern england dialect, was ' your a couple miles off Margate'.

Personally, before GPS, I used DR, even for quite long trips offshore, like five days, been lucky so far and got where I aimed. Tried a sextant, but not on trip. Now just bumble around in sight of known land, so eyeball and chart. GPS for check.

Reminded me.. Fitted an early satnav to the company barge. It would manage a fix after perhaps half an hour. Just as I was seeing them off to the Canaries, it kept refusing to fix...(but did enough later to confirm his other methods)
 
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LONG_KEELER

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Enormously satisfying crossing North Sea to end up somewhere near where you think you might be.

That's gone now , but the stress meter is now below the red line most of the time.
 

johnalison

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Few of today’s sailors can have experienced the feeling of being in the middle of nowhere and having the sense that you haven’t a clue where you are. We mostly know the basics of navigation but my contention is that a good navigator is not someone who can plot a course but one who knows what to do when all seems lost.

It also strikes me that people today are often ill adapted to the vagaries of sailing. One grandson has done stuff with sea cadets and is reasonably capable at the helm, but a granddaughter I took out the other day, although reasonably bright herself, took a long time to learn to hold a course, to and off the wind, and even then was unreliable. My impression was that she simply wasn’t in touch with her senses or her surroundings and I ascribe this to a young life largely detached from reality.
 

Uricanejack

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Few of today’s sailors can have experienced the feeling of being in the middle of nowhere and having the sense that you haven’t a clue where you are. We mostly know the basics of navigation but my contention is that a good navigator is not someone who can plot a course but one who knows what to do when all seems lost.

It also strikes me that people today are often ill adapted to the vagaries of sailing. One grandson has done stuff with sea cadets and is reasonably capable at the helm, but a granddaughter I took out the other day, although reasonably bright herself, took a long time to learn to hold a course, to and off the wind, and even then was unreliable. My impression was that she simply wasn’t in touch with her senses or her surroundings and I ascribe this to a young life largely detached from reality.
My oldest son has always had an innate sense of where he is and what’s around, not particularly interested in sailing though. He does come occasionally and did help me bring the boat up the coast.
My Daughter is much the same, she enjoys sailing. Excellent on the helm, Except for one incident when she saw all the cute little seals. She was eight.
My middle son, who like to remind her about the seals. Hasn’t a clue where he is most of the time, he would get lost on the way to the shops.
He just got his Engineer OOW.:)
 
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