Before GPS and charts.

[5BTM]

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/2...-of-wayfinding

[JBP]

Tristan Gooley has some excellent books about navigating. The Natural Navigator and How to Read Water are my favorites.

[Kettlewell]

Good stuff!

When it comes to finding our way, smartphones, satellite navigation, and other devices shouldn't be relied upon to replace more traditional skills completely, says explorer Tristan Gooley. While some argue that natural navigation skills aren't needed today, but "that's a little like saying cooking is unnecessary as there's fast food," he says.

I think just turning off the autopilot and steering your boat can make a big difference in developing natural navigation skills. Skip the chart plotter and just steer a course based on the wind, waves, and the feel of your boat. I was in the Bahamas once when the GPS system went haywire for a brief period of time. Someone came on the radio in a panic asking for help since his radar and chart plotter weren't in agreement. It being a clear, sunny day in the Abacos I called back and told him to get up on deck and look up ahead--he could see Marsh Harbour from where he was.

[5BTM]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

Good stuff!


I think just turning off the autopilot and steering your boat can make a big difference in developing natural navigation skills. Skip the chart plotter and just steer a course based on the wind, waves, and the feel of your boat. I was in the Bahamas once when the GPS system went haywire for a brief period of time. Someone came on the radio in a panic asking for help since his radar and chart plotter weren't in agreement. It being a clear, sunny day in the Abacos I called back and told him to get up on deck and look up ahead--he could see Marsh Harbour from where he was.

Back in the late seventies when young and good looking I was a third mate making 1st officer's pay because I was whizz with a sextant (never told anyone about the hold the sextant upside down, keep the star in view and bring the horizon UP.) After a few days southbound on the Red Sea I could set the rough direction and azimuth on the sextand and the star would be in the viewfinder.

[MicHughV]

Like others, I started my voyaging in the late 70's.

Lighthouses were still in vogue back then, as were radio towers, etc

Sailors kept an hourly log noting their speed, wind direction and strength and best guess at location.

GPS was not known.

Most offshore sailors had rudimentary sextant skills.

Weather was given by vhf. Once out of range, you were on your own and just dealt with whatever mother nature sent your way.

Cell phone...ha ha...funny....no such thing. Many sailors were amateur radio enthusiasts.

Mail was sent " marked " post restante" to wherever you might be headed. With a bit of luck, you might hear from someone back home.

I'd let people know where I was or will be going by sending postcards

Not having all the modern conveniences of today, I never not made it to where I wanted to go.

I don't know how many charts I have in my possession, they must number in the many dozens and dozens. All of them have red tick marks of my route and location. Several of my charts are hand drawn copies of someone else's charts. In my dotage, I will pull them all out and relive memories.

Fast forward to today. Boats are festooned with every modern electronic marvel money can buy, yet never leave the dock.

[JPA Cate]

^^^^^^Yes, and we learned to keep watch, too.

Except for a few really active volcanic areas, the "hard bits" don't change much from the old charts. In built up areas the aids to navigation increase. We have an old chart for Raoul Island, and there is a message on that chart that the depths may vary to + or - 30 ft in one spot. That's not where the anchorage is, though.




Ann

[Kettlewell]

We went to the Bahamas before there was GPS, Explorer Charts, and waypoints for everything. It was 90% eyeball navigation using the sketch charts in the Yachtsman's Guide to the Bahamas, but traversing the Bahama Bank we once crossed a noon sight with an RDF bearing to get a fix. Several times while anchored someplace in the Exumas a cruising boat would come up to us and ask, "Where are we?"

[MicHughV]

Yeah...the B'mas....my first encounter with a so-called "fish mud"....(I think that's what it is called), from horizon to horizon is a huge swath of rather murky sand colored water caused by fish feeding on the bottom. You'll be sailing along in crystal clear water of 15-20', when you might encounter one of these. Your first thought is that a grounding is imminent, but it's not. Merely kicked up bottom. These can be quite wide, but after a while you'll be back in clear water again, none the worse for wear.
First time I came across one of these, I was wondering just where the hell am I??

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

Yeah...the B'mas....my first encounter with a so-called "fish mud"....(I think that's what it is called), from horizon to horizon is a huge swath of rather murky sand colored water caused by fish feeding on the bottom. You'll be sailing along in crystal clear water of 15-20', when you might encounter one of these. Your first thought is that a grounding is imminent, but it's not. Merely kicked up bottom. These can be quite wide, but after a while you'll be back in clear water again, none the worse for wear.
First time I came across one of these, I was wondering just where the hell am I??

Those "something doesn't seem right, time to figure out what I'm missing" moments can be a little freaky. I had a good one a couple years ago heading into a harbor with a somewhat unforgiving (but also fairly easy) entrance. I was familiar with the entrance at that point, having been in and out a few times before. So when I looked over the side one day while in the channel and saw cobblestones going by under us very clearly, my eyes got a bit large.

A quick look around confirmed we were exactly where I thought we were, then I thought to look at the chartplotter and saw the depth reading showing 13 feet, meaning we were pretty much right in the deepest part of the channel. Turned out the sun was just at the right angle and there hadn't been much traffic that day, so the water was a bit extra clear and the bottom was very visible as a result.

[Kettlewell]

Those "something doesn't seem right, time to figure out what I'm missing" moments can be a little freaky.

Today we have a fixation on sailing by waypoints and sometimes that can be a problem when the waypoint is actually located on the reef or shoal, or the course to the waypoint takes you across an area that is too shallow. And, with vector charts you might not pick up on that, depending on what layers you have turned on or off. And of course charts are not always 100% accurate.

The facts indicate that the grounding of the QE2 in Vineyard Sound on 7 August 1992 was caused by the deficiencies in the hydrographic practices of the government. Subsequent hydrographic surveys were carried out in the general area over the following years to correct and add additional information. However, the shoal area was never surveyed again until 10 August 1992, a few days after the QE2 grounding. The NOAA ship Rude (under the command of lieutenant commander Perugini) determined that the area around the 39-foot shoal found in 1939 was actually a 30-foot shoal; this shoal and other shoals in the area all showed signs of being stuck by the hull of the QE2.

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

Today we have a fixation on sailing by waypoints and sometimes that can be a problem when the waypoint is actually located on the reef or shoal, or the course to the waypoint takes you across an area that is too shallow. And, with vector charts you might not pick up on that, depending on what layers you have turned on or off. And of course charts are not always 100% accurate.

Yup, people are way too quick to route in straight lines or blindly rely on autorouting. Personally, I always make sure when building a route that if I follow it blindly, I'll be in safe water. And when there are suitable AToNs to use as a turn point I do that, then my waypoint has a visual reference to back it up.

In the case of my "oh crap" moment, I was already past the last waypoint in my route (which was set to line me up to the entrance channel) and visually following the channel (buoys backed up with a range). Turned out the issue wasn't anything wrong with where I was, just a matter of seeing something unexpected that looked concerning until I confirmed it was not a problem.

[Kettlewell]

In the case of my "oh crap" moment,...

We were groping our way into the harbor at St. John, New Brunswick, in a total pea souper of a fog, and the radar was showing a solid breakwater-like structure ahead of us across what I thought was the channel. I called up harbor control on the VHF radio and they told me it was an oil tanker waiting for us to proceed ahead of him. We went close enough to feel like we were ducking under his bow and as we passed I could hear the loud whoosh, whoosh, whoosh of his prop picking up speed.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

Today we have a fixation on sailing by waypoints and sometimes that can be a problem when the waypoint is actually located on the reef or shoal,..

Indeed.
I my waypoints were [almost] always listed as a distance & direction “Off Of” a feature [landmark].
eg: Waypoint ‘04' Russell Beacon: 500 yards North of Red Buoy @ Lat/Lon

[wrwakefield]

I remember many transits of the W coast of N America [E and NE Pacific; Alaska to Mexico] using sextant, RDF, the occasional buoy, and the loom of the lighthouses to maintain DR- all supplemented with occasional coastal navigation fixes. My printed chart set was a stack 6 inches high when all were new and flat.

The S Pacific transits required mostly sextant. I was very pleased when I achieved [got lucky] the rare 5 mile cocked-hat. I recall using WWV or WWVH time tics for the chronometer and ocean storm warnings [on the bottom of the hour as I recall…] My hand-me-down S PAC charts were mostly dated late 19th century. Birds were the best resource for finding/validating landfalls were nearby before visual confirmation was achieved…

Comms were conducted on MF/HF radio- ultimately with a skookum Pactor1 modem and then Sailmail…

Satnav was available [a fix every 5 mins IIRC] but out of my reach. Then came LORAN, and ultimately GPS [but it was dithered the first few years so fixes were ±1/4 mile… Today it is difficult to buy an electronic device that doesn’t have GNSS capability.

I, too, am totally spoiled by GNSS, electronic navigation, and ubiquitous internet access. I haven’t owned a printed chart in 15+ years [sans some keepsakes and the NW Passage chart set.] But I still have my sextant; onboard… mostly out of nostalgia as I would be hard pressed to use efficiently to create a fix…

Thanks for evoking the memories. I still prefer navigation as it is now, however.

Cheers, Bill

[Kettlewell]

I, too, am totally spoiled by GNSS, electronic navigation, and ubiquitous internet access. I haven’t owned a printed chart in 15+ years [sans some keepsakes and the NW Passage chart set.] But I still have my sextant; onboard… mostly out of nostalgia as I would be hard pressed to use efficiently to create a fix…

Yep, my early offshore passages up to Labrador and back were totally with sextants, DR, and an occasional RDF bearing. Went down to the Caribbean and back up via Bermuda on sextant only. Still own and use paper charts and chartbooks on every trip, in addition to a basic position-only GPS and OpenCPN on my phone. I like seeing the big picture a paper chart or chartbook provides me, but the phone charts are super useful for that final approach view from any position on the boat since I have it on my phone. I also occasionally still take bearings and plot them of landmarks, and I carry a sextant onboard though it would take awhile to get up to speed. I also carry a full set of paper maps in my car and use them all the time, and I use paper maps and hiking guides when on the trail. The big picture with good detail is so much more useful than phone navigation and keeps your mind engaged with the overall navigational picture.