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View Poll Results: How do you get your sailing fix?
Eyes and Ears Navigation. Chart tucked away usually 6 31.58%
Hockey Puck and Visual Fixes on a chart 5 26.32%
Chart plotter/radar when in trouble/ referrence 3 15.79%
Chartplotter always on. 5 26.32%
Voters: 19. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 09-07-2012, 11:36   #1
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How do you get your sailing fix?

One of the many benifits of this forum is that I see how others sail. It has come as quite a shock to me that everyone does not sail exactly the same way I do OK, how do you navigate?
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Old 09-07-2012, 12:08   #2
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Re: How do you get your sailing fix?

Can't vote.. I can't get my fix for sailing enough..
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Old 09-07-2012, 12:35   #3
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Re: How do you get your sailing fix?

I think we all sail the same. It's just what toys we use while doing it!

Way too many rocks and shoals around Salem/Boston to use eyes only unless I am always going to take the long way around to be in the marked channel.

I think there are lots of places that once you are out of the harbor eyes probably work fine, but that is 6+ miles for me.
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Old 09-07-2012, 13:02   #4
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Re: How do you get your sailing fix?

Basic coastal navigation for me begins with planning: looking at weather forecasts, figuring out the favorable tidal stream, then a departure time, then laying out the course on a paper chart, setting waypoints on a GPS (no plotter aboard), and checking all the nav gear. Underway, take a bearing when useful, check the compass on different courses for deviation, and make hourly position notations in the log and on the chart. Nothing to it - the basics, at least. There's a lot more in the background, of course - such as chart corrections, swinging the compass, familiarity with the local area in the Coast Pilot, instrument calibrations, knowing of potential ports of refuge, and so on.
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Old 09-07-2012, 22:17   #5
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Re: How do you get your sailing fix?

I think the Chart plotterers don't want to come out and say who they are...
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Old 09-07-2012, 22:22   #6
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Re: How do you get your sailing fix?

Hoist the sails!

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Old 09-07-2012, 22:45   #7
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Re: How do you get your sailing fix?

As part of our agreed procedure i'm teaching my wife responsibilities of sailing, this starts with route planning all the way through sail trim to anchoring, i explain what she needs to do to get going and she does it.

This is to ensure that if something happened to me that she would safely be able to get the boat home.

So :-
We decide on our destination based on the prevailing wind, Vivien pencils our planned course, i check weather on Navtex, Vivien enters course into E120 and off we go, any questions regarding course details she refers to all resources, paper charts, pilots, travel publications and plotter.......

Working beautifully so far.
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Old 09-07-2012, 23:55   #8
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Re: How do you get your sailing fix?

I'll bite. Coastal sailing here in DK means lots of shoals etc. I use paper charts to plan the route and look for times to avoid. Measure out distances to get approximate sail times etc. I rarely bother to key in a route on my RAymarine (yes I have one and use it extensively), unless I'm sailing at night.

Having done my homework, I get out and sail. I' refer to the plotter to stay on course and especially if I'm sailing in a channel (or have to pick one up).

While the plotter does have harbor pilots built in , I prefer to use a good old fashioned book - gives me a better overview.

Just to keep all the howling wolves at bay - My wife is a Yachtmaster Offshore and she works just about the same way I do. It's a joint effort. Only occasionally do we disagree on a route - the it is mostly a matter of which channel we prefer.

I firmly believe in using all the tools I have at my disposal. I like paper for the overview and I like the plotter for sailing in tight quarters since it tells me exactly where I am all the time. If the plotter breaks down, then it's back to compass/ruler/dividers and DR navigation.

Should I be out on the really deep - I know how to use a sextant, have one, and practice it enough to be able to get a fix that is close enough for what I need to make a proper landfall.
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Old 10-07-2012, 04:00   #9
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Re: How do you get your sailing fix?

Quote:
Originally Posted by s/v Beth View Post
I think the Chart plotterers don't want to come out and say who they are...
maybe we feel we are being setup

but then the "eyes" don't seem to want to say either
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Old 10-07-2012, 12:07   #10
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Re: How do you get your sailing fix?

I had a different idea when I saw the title of this thread. I was going to respond that I sail as much as I can on club boats and other people's boats to get my fix. My boat's in the yard.

Once I determined that you were asking about coastal navigation I got it.

I love looking at paper charts and taking handbearing compass readings to place where I am. Don't have a hockey puck just a Davis handbearing compass or I look across the ship's compass. For short day sails we don't go far enough to really worry about where we are.

kind regards,
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Old 10-07-2012, 13:03   #11
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Re: How do you get your sailing fix?

The Nature coast is a shallow rocky one, so I sail very carefully. The local rule of thumb is one foot of water for evey mile offshore.
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Old 10-07-2012, 13:13   #12
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Re: How do you get your sailing fix?

i reside aboard and get my sailing fix by sailing.
for navigation, i use paper to find out where i want to go and what that area is like, then navigate actively with garmin and paper handy ...very handy.
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Old 10-07-2012, 14:21   #13
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Re: How do you get your sailing fix?

Sailing fix? Someone say sailing?

Currently boatless. Landlocked a thousand miles from the sea. Sobs wretchedly.

To keep the cold-turkey symptoms under control, I tack my bicycle up hills by holding one side of my jacket out in the breeze, and fly the thunderbird burgee on the spare halyard at all the stinkpotters. There are many, and they have no regard for colregs. Swabs.

When no breeze is available I "row" on provisioning trips...to enhance the experience I douse myself periodically with salty water, ride backwards and push myself along with two sticks. At the shops, I lock my bike to as many other bikes as I possibly can, hide nearby and laugh maniacally at the ensuing show. I have a bike at every shop now, so it's no big deal.

The "cruising experience" is rounded out by eating hurriedly out of cold cans with the labels soaked off while crouching under my dining table by candlelight, gripping a baulk of timber between my knees, a rope clenched under my chin, and trying to communicate in pidgin Esperanto with a HAM operator in Moldavia with the stereo blaring "The Flying Dutchman" in the background. I sleep 10 minutes at a time, three times a day and fully clothed in foulies, in the gap between my bed and the wall, in my semi-flooded hallway. I ate my last bar of soap two months ago thinking it was cheese, and still think it was actually better; mysteriously, my cloud of flies died of asphyxiation shortly after, so no more crunchy keepawake snacks on watch. At least the mould crop is coming along nicely this year, harvest season soon, looks like a bumper yield.

There is a chance at a sail on a local lake next week. The lake is about as big as the puddle I leave on my bathroom floor after a shower, but hey, when you gotta go sail, you take what you can get.

I really need a boat, and water.

As to navigation, I'll use anything I can get but prefer the simpler the better.....trying to get familiar with OpenCPN but for some reason it's a bit squirrely on the updates at the moment. Still looking for a decent sextant, there's got to be a wartime relic stashed in an attic or antique shop somewhere in the vicinity. Perhaps a Russian SNO-T would be more realistic and achieveable. I'm wary of becoming reliant on the electronics... a good navigator should be able to use whatever is on hand, or else when the toys are gone they're stuffed. Ran enough nav-ex's back when I wore the gubbiment-supplied green suit to work.....

Someone please take me sailing before I crack up.
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Old 10-07-2012, 14:40   #14
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Re: How do you get your sailing fix?

Far offshore we can fix everyday but sometimes we will only fix once every two days. I did find one entry in our logs when I fixed only once every 4 days. Our fix comes from the GPS and we mark it on a paper chart. I also take Sun sights and calculate various types of solar LPs.

Inshore we will fix as often as we find this necessary. We rely on eye navigation a lot. But when the navigation is more complex (winding channels, plenty of turns, shallows, etc..) then I will try to have the PC plotter on for quick reference. Again, we always try to carry the best paper chart of the area we could find.

So one can say a pretty vicious mix here - anything from sextant to full time plotter on. Just depends on what we are doing and how close the dangers are spaced.

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