Which way to turn and why?

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by bewitched

I am steering 175, I turn to starboard 95 degrees to 270 - have I not passed the mark to port and to the north or the cardinal?

Each of the first three questions says "pass the mark" - if you pass this mark you are wrong...

I wonder how many pages this thread will run...

[SimonV]

North cardinal marking something.......no mention of other lights. D STOP then work out where and why you are there.

[Blue Stocking]

This is interesting!!--a number of opinions on a nav situation which, in theory, should motivate a standard action, one would think.
You could argue that we don't have the full picture, but at 0200hr, on a moonless night, you dont know the full picture either. Hmmm.

[jackdale]

You want to stay North of this north cardinal buoy. Turn to starboard and leave the buoy to port.

A little preachy - had you done your passage planning you would have expected this light and made prior decision regarding to which side you would leave the light.

I make a list of all the lights that I will see with heir characteristics and to which side I will leave them.

Of that light appeared unexpectedly to me, I would stop.

[bewitched]

Originally Posted by IslandHopper

Correct me if i am wrong, but the question is just a basic multiple choice giving you four answers to pick from ? no reference to a particular chart ? it could be anywhere in the world ?

Multiple choice, only 4 answers

No specific chart referred to, nor specific location where the incident takes place. The exam is for a Hong Kong local vessel licence, so I guess one can assume the location is Hong Kong (IALA).

[bewitched]

Originally Posted by jackdale

You want to stay North of this north cardinal buoy. Turn to starboard and leave the buoy to port.

A little preachy - had you done your passage planning you would have expected this light and made prior decision regarding to which side you would leave the light.

I make a list of all the lights that I will see with heir characteristics and to which side I will leave them.

Of that light appeared unexpectedly to me, I would stop.

Not preachy at all - and your observation draws attention to the fact that the question doesn't reveal whether the light was expected or not.

Stop may be the best option if the light was unexpected

Turn to starboard may be the best option if you passage plan was to get within a certain distance of this cardinal and head west.

A turn to port may be the best option if your passage plan was to head east.

But you could have turned east or west, so maybe the 4th option was correct?

FWIW I chose turn to starboard because that would put the danger (if there was danger) on my port side and would allow me to take a further turn to starboard if I found myself in a head on situation with a vessel travelling west to east and also complying with the cardinal. An initial turn to port would not allow this option with a head on situation in the other direction.

I don't know what the answer is. I think all 4 can be justified.

[Ex-Calif]

Depending on how the test is written, one gets credit for the safest answer. To be sure it is a poorly written question.

[Mexdon]

The North Cardinal indicates safe water to the north of the mark. The way the question is structured the only option is d. to stop as you are in the indicated safe water as you are coming from the north. What you do after that is not part of the question

[jackdale]

As an aside - if anyone wants a copy of my passage planning form, here is a link.

http://www.swiftsuresailing.com/documents/passplan.pdf

Last year in Barkley Sound I stopped a boat when a nav aid made no sense.

When seen from a distance



And up close



We let the Coast Guard know and they went out and fixed it.

[David M]

It's a bad question. It did not give you enough information to make a proper decision. A quick flashing white light can be a number of things.

[Blue Stocking]

Originally Posted by David M

It's a bad question. It did not give you enough information to make a proper decision. A quick flashing white light can be a number of things.

Quite so

If I may give a comment.
If you approach Bermuda on a true course of 175 degrees, and see a flashing white, you better stop.
Bermuda's Northern reef platform extends 9 miles from shore and has 4 northern cardinal marks, spread west to east about 20 miles in a domed eliptical shape.
IIRC, they all flash 1 quick white, with different time Qk. Fl sequences additional.
Depending on which 1 you see first, either a left or right turn could put you in the "crabgrass".
There are many wrecks there to prove it, some recent.

[atoll]

stop is another difficult one as well! unless at anchor,or tied along side, a vessel will still be under the influence of either wind drift or the tide/current,and not stopped!

[Blue Stocking]

Originally Posted by atoll

stop is another difficult one as well! unless at anchor,or tied along side, a vessel will still be under the influence of either wind drift or the tide/current,and not stopped!

Right--I interpret stop to mean hold position while figuring next move. NO

[psneeld]

Originally Posted by Blue Stocking

This is interesting!!--a number of opinions on a nav situation which, in theory, should motivate a standard action, one would think.
You could argue that we don't have the full picture, but at 0200hr, on a moonless night, you dont know the full picture either. Hmmm.

Navigation is the art of confirming your position...not determining it.

At 0200 on a moonless night I BETTER know whether I should or shouldn't be seeing a cardinal marker...so its a bad question unless that is at the top of the page or it's understood because of the region the test is covering.

If the test is in the land of cardinal marks then there's probably a better answer than nothing...but the marking scheme wasn't in the OPs question in post one so its hard to respond one way or the other.

[atoll]

Originally Posted by Blue Stocking

Right--I interpret stop to mean hold position while figuring next move. NO

passed a north cardinal mark the other week to my port,marking the enterance to a channel,with a red bouy off to the west marking the other side.
only thing was we were doing nearly 8knots over the ground,but the barges flat out speed was only 3.5....go figger