Australian Nautical Mile Calculator

[bmwhyte]

Have you considered Aquamap, a free navigation program that works extremely well I have used it for several years in blue water and lakes. If you are interested in more local assessments, email me at bmwhyte at me.com

bruce

[SeanPatrick]

FWIW, my spreadsheet will give you the great circle distance between any two points on the globe, broken down into 300NM legs with waypoints. And it has an internal database of ~26,500 cities worldwide. And it's free. Link is below in my signature.

[Icarus]

Originally Posted by Cruising Roo

Hello All. I have been trying very hard not to be asking too many questions but despite far too long trying to find an answer, I have failed AND, this should be a simple reply. I am trying very hard to find a site for Australia that gives nautical miles distances between locations. Like Google Maps but for the ocean. For example, I enter Geelong Victoria and say Lakes Entrance and it will give me the nautical miles or any figure then I can convert it NM.

I am getting close to the point of purchasing a boat and need to calculate the distances to see if I will steam or have it trucked. All sorts of issues like fuel and where it can be purchased along the route etc need to calculated accepting wind and currents and the element of being ‘conservative’. It was from this site and the inordinate amount of wisdom that the sailing vessel is off my list due to a significant lower back injury. I am looking at the first boat to be primarily steamed around Port Phillip Bay (PPB) to do some fishing, scuba diving (awesome scallops out there) and weekends or so on the water. I will travel outside PPB but how far is depending on the boat. Thank you in advance and may you stay afloat. Darren

Get a nautical paper chart and a pair of dividers...

[Cruising Roo]

sorry. bloody post disappeared. reply later

[Cruising Roo]

Originally Posted by NevilleCat

You could get yourself a book called Cruising Victoria which is produced by the Cruising Yacht Association of Victoria and has anchorage maps and interesting info for Vic coast and the Bass Strait islands and covers down to the north coast of Tassie. It also includes a basic passage distance guide.
Whitworths has it, or Boat Books in NSW

Hi Neville. I have been flat out looking at boats and probably have said but am about to put an offer in on a small 30 foot motor boat to "test the water". Sailing is unfortunately out of the question for me. This boat will be used only in the bay and Victorian waters although a trip to King island is certainly on the cards. i am a scuba diver and the crayfish are still in abundance over there. You think this is the book for me?
Cheers
Darren

[Cruising Roo]

Originally Posted by StuM

There's no such thing as a "Ports Authority". The closest is the "Ports Australia" association https://www.portsaustralia.com.au/
which has 28 members - all individual commercial "Port Authorities". But they don't provide anything like distance charts even between their member ports, let alone all the little places that recreational sailors want to visit.


Route planning and pilotage are essential skills you need to develop if you intend to coastal cruise safely, there are no shortcuts.
(Playing with the Navionics site mentioned above is a good start)

Totally understood and agree StuM and whilst I have a long history of being on the ocean, The navigation is all new to me and for example, I am planning to purchase a boat tomorrow; know the boat speed, nautical miles (roughly) and fuel holding capacity... I got the urge to ask the question as I am a "little bit sure"... i am not the first person to ask this question. Cheers

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by Cruising Roo

Totally understood and agree StuM and whilst I have a long history of being on the ocean, The navigation is all new to me...

You're in the same situation I was, long ago. After years of boating in small boats, plus recreational and commercial fishing, all in my local area, I wanted to head out and explore. But until then, I'd always been in familiar waters. I knew every submerged rock, narrow passage and back eddy. Never needed charts, and only used the compass when the fog got really thick.

So I took a course in navigation from our local Coast Guard Auxiliary. Not sure what's available in your area, but it's something I'd strongly recommend looking for. For navigation, an in-person class is much better than on-line. You really need to start at the beginning, from the way we project the spherical Earth onto paper (or a screen) and apply coordinates, all the way up to the practical details of getting from one place to another.

[ChrisJHC]

Roo, you might like to do a Day Skipper or BareBoat Skipper theory course.
This will cover things like navigation, rules of the road, basic passage planning, etc

There are a few companies in Melbourne that run them - PM me if you want recommendations.

[Cruising Roo]

Hi ChrisJHC. Yes this was all covered with the coxswains ticket but that was a long time ago (1996) for me. Initially I am looking at a small 9 meter diesel motor boat so will not be travelling long distances other than maybe a hop over to King Island. I guess the questions are to get an update on the technology that is around today like the Apps for example. In 1996, all of the navigation was exclusively on charts. i don't recall fuel calculations and "efficiency" was a part of the accreditation but back then, you did not need a second mortgage to buy a tank of diesel !!! And finally, i am learning a hell of a lot including Hull speed calculations and many other things. Cheers. Darren

[Longy]

well youve learnt more via the proposals, this is the short cut however it does it for you, thus doesnt help nav skilling

https://sea-distances.org/