Navigation by looking around

Neil Gordon · Post by **Neil Gordon** » Aug 29th, '05, 05:50

We just finished up a great weekend, sailing from Boston to Scituate (MA) and back. I didn't bother much with the GPS, instead choosing to navigate just by looking around. It's surprising how many features there are on the land that I'd have missed otherwise. I also paid much more attention to depth, not to keep from running aground, but as a way to confirm on the chart where looking around suggested I probably was.

By some measure, it seems safer to sail that way. I invariably give myself more leeway (no pun intended) in staying away from potential trouble spots. I also find I'm more willing to optimize the wind, sailing for best overall performance (or maybe just because some points of sail make the boat happier) without the "road map" on the GPS telling me to steer within one degree some course that will get me back on track, like there's some magic to that.

Overall, I suspect, what I save in batteries will more than offset the increased cost of fuel.

Frank Vernet · Post by **Frank Vernet** » Aug 29th, '05, 15:29

Neil

I agree with you. While the GPS Chartplotter is a wonderful invention, it does lead to complacency. I fight that by having my boys practice just what you described. One navigates by plotting fixes using landmarks, the other verifies his work using depth contours. Works great, keeps them involved in the navigation/positioning, and it reveals the wonders hidden on the charts.

r/

Frank

Neil Gordon · Post by **Neil Gordon** » Aug 29th, '05, 18:52

Frank Vernet wrote:I agree with you. While the GPS Chartplotter is a wonderful invention, it does lead to complacency.

Problems also tend to compound to create real emergencies. So the likely scenario is that the same incident that injures the captain also disables the GPS. Then what?

Bruce Bett · Post by **Bruce Bett** » Aug 29th, '05, 19:21

Neil:

Yeah, and you've got to be careful with those things. On the Sostenuto I carry a Garmen 76 without chart plotters. I always plot on paper charts and use the gps for confirmation. It works well.

Last March we chartered a boat in the Keys. She came with a very nice color charting gps. Did I like it? Well yeah I kind of did, but it's kind of scary too. It makes navigation too much like a video game. As you say you need to look around. Correlate what you are seeing on the chart with what you see around you. Approaching Plantation Marina there's a small shoal maybe a quarter mile off the entrance using the gps chart I planned to skirt the shoal leaving it port. I started getting some worrisome readings on my sounder and veered off a bit more to starboard. The readings got worse. I went back to port but the little curser kept getting closer to the shoal and was getting nervous.

Now I got into the marina all right, walked across the key to the marina where the charter had started got the car and had a wonderful dinner at Bentley’s (life is so hard). But what happened? The most honest answer is I don't know, but here's what I think. I think that shoal is misplaced on the chart by a hundred yards or so. Maybe it was misplotted or maybe it got moved over by a hurricane or something. If I wasn't watching that little curser move over that little electronic chart I would probably have moved more to port and missed the shoal by more than I did, maybe...

Anyway That's my story for what it's worth.

Bruce Bett
Sostenuto
CD 25 #496

dasein668 · Post by **dasein668** » Aug 29th, '05, 21:22

I love my electronics, but I keep the paper and eyeballs handy at all times. It sure is unnerving when you get readings like this:

<image removed by dasein668>

I'm pretty sure I wasn't really in that spot...

Neil Gordon · Post by **Neil Gordon** » Aug 30th, '05, 05:29

Bruce Bett wrote:I think that shoal is misplaced on the chart by a hundred yards or so.

Stuff on the chart isn't always exactly where the chart says it is. Some things have a tendency to move a bit, bottoms tend to shoal and some obstructions might be off just a tad. When we didn't know exactly where we were, we gave ourselves more room... now that we can navigate within a few feet, we try and get as close as we can.

Neil Gordon · Post by **Neil Gordon** » Aug 30th, '05, 05:31

dasein668 wrote:I'm pretty sure I wasn't really in that spot...

I think you made my case.

slaume · Post by **slaume** » Aug 30th, '05, 07:01

We have a hand held gps that has migrated from sea kayak to Typhoon to CD-30. I use it in conjunction with traditional plotting on paper charts. A chart plotter would be a nice addition but doesn't seem essential. The point I wanted to make on looking around is something I have noticed when I have some one on board and ask them if they can find where we are on the chart. The first thing they do is pick up the chart and study it very intently. No one ever seems to look around first and then try to place the "land marks" on the chart. We could be sailing right passed a numbered bouy at a point of land and it seems inevitable that an inexperinced navigator will be stairing at the chart not having any idea where they are. If you always look around it is much harder to get turned around, Steve.

bobdugan · Post by **bobdugan** » Aug 30th, '05, 07:14

My wife and I LOVE The Basin! It's one of the only places in Maine I'm willing to swim because the water is so warm.

Bob

Marianna Max · Post by **Marianna Max** » Aug 30th, '05, 08:04

The crew learned a lot on this trip. One really useful thing to remember is that if you plan on a return trip along the same path, that looking behind you for landmarks and being able to triangulate a view things by eye, makes the trip back a breeze.

Neil Gordon · Post by **Neil Gordon** » Aug 30th, '05, 08:21

slaume wrote:The first thing they do is pick up the chart and study it very intently.

The second thing they do is turn the chart so that it's pointed in the same direction as the boat. If the chart people wanted you to do that, they would have printed everything upside down and/or sideways.

What I like to do is show them the chart, point out where we are and point out some of the things that you can find on the chart and see by looking. I then encourage them to look, usually by pointing... when you say, "this little dot is the big gas tank, which is right over there" it's hard for them not to look.

Also interesting from looking around is that you don't have to limit what you look at to where you are and where you are going. On a clear day, really tall things can be seen even though there are shorter things in front of them. Works well with the Boston skyline, for example.

Marianna Max · Post by **Marianna Max** » Aug 30th, '05, 08:37

The second thing they do is turn the chart so that it's pointed in the same direction as the boat. If the chart people wanted you to do that, they would have printed everything upside down and/or sideways.

Hey, this is really helpful for us east west challenged folks. btw, I come by that affliction legitimately because I'm a transplanted left coaster. The ocean should be to the left when looking north!!!!

SeaBelle · Post by **SeaBelle** » Aug 30th, '05, 08:54

This reminds me of one of my first sails. I discovered that I had the urge to sail and after a sailing course on a river using O'Day day sailers I bought my first boat, a Tanzer 22. After several sails around Mattapoisett Harbor and some more venturing just a bit beyond into Buzzards Bay, I took a day sail out further into the bay with my then 7 year old daughter. As we left the harbor I told Hope "We'll need some landmarks to find our way back. That tank, called a standpipe, will be one and those gray cottages will be others". Then we sailed for hours absorbed with the brilliant day and with trimming the sails. When it was time to sail back we looked for our landmarks but to my surprise there were many standpipes and virtually all the shorefront cottages were that Cape Cod gray. I picked a harbor entrance that looked like a likely prospect but after sailing to its entrance, it didn't look like Mattapoisett. Several hours and many tries later we stumbled upon it.

That was a lesson learned (as I often learn them). I soon developed a better eye and importantly got charts and used them.

rtbates · Post by **rtbates** » Aug 30th, '05, 10:34

Hopefully by using something other than GPS you'll notice your position jump on the GPS when the military dithers the GPS satellite signal.
I agree 100% with your approach to navigation. If at all possible GPS should ONLY be used to verify a position obtained by another method. This way you'll be able to navigate WHEN the GPS goes belly up or overboard or you lose power or have a lightning strike close by or ......
We all should know the saying about the prudent sailor using more than one means to fix a position and heed.

Randy 25D Seraph #161

wayne grenier · Post by **wayne grenier** » Aug 30th, '05, 12:53

Reminds me of a story-several years ago I was steering my friend's 37 Hunter across Buzzard's Bay into New Bedford-now there is a light house outside of the harbor that's white and black and maybe 60' high? and looks like a huge sparkplug on the horizon-so I was using this as a visiual reference and my friend asked me why I was not following the course he had laid out on the GPS chartplotter-I was not using the chartplotter becuase I could see where I was going and had the bow of the boat lined up with the lighthouse! why make something simple complicated? some people like all the tech and gadgets-I only use them when I need them-like when I can't see where I am going-anyway-we made it back -the old fashioned way-

The Cape Dory Board

Navigation by looking around

Navigation by looking around

Good Training For Crew As Well...

Re: Good Training For Crew As Well...

The Basin!

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How right you are...

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