How to chart a course across Lake Ontario

[Joe]

Piloting and dead reckoning are two different things. Piloting uses navigational aids to create and follow a route, or to simply determine one's location. Navigational aids are detectable object that has a known location. They can be natural geographical features such as mountains, man made objects such as tall buildings, radio towers, ferris wheels.. just about anything. They can be visual, auditory or electronic objects specifically installed to assist the mariner in safely negotiating a route. Bouys, markers, towers, lighthouses

Dead reckoning, on the other hand, is the art of navigating without fixed navigational aids. To successfully practice DR, one needs to know the start point, the boat's compass course and it's speed, noted at regular timed intervals in a log book. The log should also show estimated current and leeway. At specific times, the data is used to calculate the new position based on the last DR waypoint. Any mis interpretation of a log data will lead to errors in estimated position, so it's important that a reliable fix be added when possible to allow for the DR course to be corrected. Before modern electronics and radio, navigators used sextants to determine latitude and chronometers to help figure longitude.

The point of this short discussion is to make you aware of the tools you need to DR. You need the compass, of course, but you need a way to measure boat speed, and you need a time piece(I used my phone's alarm feature) and a note book. You should also have some tools, such as dividers and any of the many plotting devices available...... and of course you need a chart. Finally, a large clip board is handy so you can do everything in the cockpit.

My recommendation is to start out piloting. Here, you are not concerned about monitoring boat speed or course to determine location, but using various straight line sights to triangulate your position. Although 2 fixes is possible, 3 or more are recommended. You will never get the lines to coincide at one exact point, you're human and the boat is moving.... it's impossible. The lines of sight will meet to a small triangle... your location is in that area. Piloting is a lot of fun and will help you develop the skills you need to eventually become good at DR. Okay... thats it... have fun.

 

[jssailem]

Spot on Joe.
The only addition I have used to your tool set is my depth sounder and a chart showing charted soundings.

 

[Foswick]

[...] As a new sailor on a Siren 17, you may be better served to focus on developing sailing techniques, weather assessment/judgment, and seamanship skills - and eschew the old-fashioned methods of paper charts and magnetic compass. [...] However, paper charts are going away (whether the luddites like it or not) and it makes good sense to use better technology so you can focus on other important things.

We don't know that the poster is not already working on those skills. It is not only possible to learn sailing while learning analog navigation, some would argue that it is preferable. (Arguably, it is better to learn to do it the hard way first, then enjoy the benefits of technology that makes it easier, so you do not find yourself a relatively inexperienced sailor AND dependent on an electronic device.) I'm not sure we know enough to know what the poster finds important to be able to advice them what it is important to focus on. For some, using traditional methods IS the very point.

I would argue that, if you sail at all, this is true to some degree.

Embracing paper charts does not make one a luddite. I, for example, have made a living in technology that most people haven't even heard of yet. My boat has chart plotters, radar, autopilot, etc. I don't reject technology, at all. But, I definitely feel that it is important to maintain analog skills and tools - not only as a backup, but also to understand what those electronic gadgets are doing under the hood. True, most casual sailors absolutely do not need these skills. GPS is reliable (but not infallible). And, for most, a GPS failure wouldn't be a big deal because they don't stray far enough from familiar areas to matter.

But, some of us spend time off the beaten path where we definitely do not want to have an electronic device or two to be the only way to know where we are. And, some people just enjoy doing things the old way because the are the old way.

 

[Foswick]

Piloting and dead reckoning are two different things.

I hope this isn't too pedantic, but I wanted to clarify. Piloting and "pilotage" are two different things. Piloting is knowing your position or course using any method. Pilotage is specifically using using fixed landmarks. I think Joe was referring to pilotage. It all falls under the general heading "piloting".

It is possible that, in some circles, the term "piloting" is used in place of "pilotage", and I am just not aware of that usage.

That doesn't invalidate anything Joe said, which was all good info.

 

[capta]

Are you trying to sail "under the radar" or do you just wish to take a pleasure cruise? Quite a bit different in the planning stages, though the execution may not be all that different.