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19-10-2009, 18:03
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#1
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Registered User
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 15
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Navigational Term ?
I have been reading a book about a man's transatlantic voyage and he keeps using a term that i can't wrap my head around. The phrase is "traveling (cardinal direction) BY (cardinal direction)" for example. I am traveling I am traveling W by WNW or W by NW....
Does this mean you are actually on a course steering toward NW but making good on a Westerly track? If not, could you dumb it down for me. 
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19-10-2009, 18:43
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#2
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Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Toronto, Canada on Lake Ontario
Boat: Roberts Offshore 38
Posts: 1,287
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dinghy101
I have been reading a book about a man's transatlantic voyage and he keeps using a term that i can't wrap my head around. The phrase is "traveling (cardinal direction) BY (cardinal direction)" for example. I am traveling I am traveling W by WNW or W by NW....
Does this mean you are actually on a course steering toward NW but making good on a Westerly track? If not, could you dumb it down for me. |
I'm not sure but I always thougth it meant to split the difference. W by NW would be WNW. Or 292.5 degrees. W by WNW would be 281 and a bit.
Sabre
46 days n a wake up
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19-10-2009, 18:55
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#3
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Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Tampa Bay area, USA
Boat: Beneteau First 42
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In "Olden Days" the compass was divided into 32 "Points" identified beginning with North, North by East (11.25*), North-Northeast (22.5*) etc. around the compass. For mor infornmation see Boxing the compass - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
FWIW...
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"It is not so much for its beauty that the Sea makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air, that emanation from the waves, that so wonderfully renews a weary spirit."
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19-10-2009, 18:58
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#4
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Registered User
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Piscataway, NJ
Boat: 34 Sabre Tempest
Posts: 960
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I agree....and think it's a general directional term..as well......it's a long voyage.....you're always adjusting course it's more practical in a book format to talk about general direction. Like, birds fly south for the winter....?
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Tempest
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20-10-2009, 15:39
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#5
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Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Toronto, Canada on Lake Ontario
Boat: Roberts Offshore 38
Posts: 1,287
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Thanks for clarifying that. learned something new again. 
Sabre
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20-10-2009, 16:05
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#6
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Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: St. Georges, Bda
Boat: Rhodes Reliant 41ft
Posts: 4,131
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The "Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea" Edited by Peter Kemp, as follows:
Cardinal Points--the four points of north,south, east and west on a magnetic compass card. The points halfway between these-northeast, southeast, southwest and northwest-are known as half-cardinal points.
An indispensible book of nautical terminology IMHO. The ISBN # is 0-19-282084-2 if interested. Cheers:
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20-10-2009, 16:34
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#7
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Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Skagit City, WA
Posts: 25,860
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sabreKai has it....
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20-10-2009, 17:10
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#8
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Registered User
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 15
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Thanks y'all.
Will check out wikipedia for more info about it.
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20-10-2009, 17:15
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#9
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Registered User
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 15
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In fact, that wikipedia link above clears it up perfectly. Makes sense too as the gentleman whose book i was reading was british.
THANKS!
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