21 years ago, I was eyeball piloting on a paper chart in my lap. I'd been through the opening (plenty wide, about 300 yards), many times. The rocks I hit are well marked on the chart, but they go underwater about 2/3rds of the tidal change.
The only problem then was, I wasn't where I thought I was, on the chart(not that rare an occurrence for me,...I recall).
Current set(?),...poor accuracy as I glanced bearings over the binnacle-compass. Maybe I should have gone below (after dropping the sails) and read the Loran and plotted my location, speed, course accurately on the paper chart? I chalk it up to laziness and a B-rate navigator.
We managed to get up and down the coast between Canada and the Bahamas - twice in fact - with Loran helping us (except in the Bahamas I remember), but I don't miss the old ways one bit.
Back to yesterday's shake-down cruise; there was no panic on the expired Navionics. I had the onboard CP zoomed to cover the area between the rocks, and most importantly; CHRISTMAS, smack in the middle of the chart with the GPS pointer telling me I was headed right up the middle.
I still like to use two CP's so I asked Mary Ann if I could borrow her phone that has Navionics on it (I found later that my phone was in fact still operating as a CP, despite the expiration. Thank you Navionics.
It was fun and relaxing (after I got used to the wind), to be safely threading our way under reduced sail. With just 85-100% of the genoa drawing and the mizzen flying, we were able to sail due West(270 on CP) into a 230 degree brisk Southwester(so the NOAA buoy 3 miles away was reporting).
While paying close attention to my location and surrounding hazards as I sailed the boat through on one CP, Mary Ann's phone, set at a larger scale, showed that we could fetch Camden Harbor on the western shore of Penobscot Bay, on this tack.
Sailing at between 6 and 7+ knots, her CP said we'd be there in less than an hour (hold lunch).
We slid right into the harbor without having to deal with dousing sails outside in the 25kt winds. Furling limps sails inside, we felt the heat! We had used every blanket onboard to sleep the night before in the islands out in the cool bay. Now we were stripping off jackets, rolling up the front of the dodger and wishing we had the awning flying.
Camden in the Southwesterly was out of the cooling effect of the 55 degree ocean water.
2021 should be a great season sailing in the land of fire and ice.
The only problem then was, I wasn't where I thought I was, on the chart(not that rare an occurrence for me,...I recall).
Current set(?),...poor accuracy as I glanced bearings over the binnacle-compass. Maybe I should have gone below (after dropping the sails) and read the Loran and plotted my location, speed, course accurately on the paper chart? I chalk it up to laziness and a B-rate navigator.
We managed to get up and down the coast between Canada and the Bahamas - twice in fact - with Loran helping us (except in the Bahamas I remember), but I don't miss the old ways one bit.
Back to yesterday's shake-down cruise; there was no panic on the expired Navionics. I had the onboard CP zoomed to cover the area between the rocks, and most importantly; CHRISTMAS, smack in the middle of the chart with the GPS pointer telling me I was headed right up the middle.
I still like to use two CP's so I asked Mary Ann if I could borrow her phone that has Navionics on it (I found later that my phone was in fact still operating as a CP, despite the expiration. Thank you Navionics.
It was fun and relaxing (after I got used to the wind), to be safely threading our way under reduced sail. With just 85-100% of the genoa drawing and the mizzen flying, we were able to sail due West(270 on CP) into a 230 degree brisk Southwester(so the NOAA buoy 3 miles away was reporting).
While paying close attention to my location and surrounding hazards as I sailed the boat through on one CP, Mary Ann's phone, set at a larger scale, showed that we could fetch Camden Harbor on the western shore of Penobscot Bay, on this tack.
Sailing at between 6 and 7+ knots, her CP said we'd be there in less than an hour (hold lunch).
We slid right into the harbor without having to deal with dousing sails outside in the 25kt winds. Furling limps sails inside, we felt the heat! We had used every blanket onboard to sleep the night before in the islands out in the cool bay. Now we were stripping off jackets, rolling up the front of the dodger and wishing we had the awning flying.
Camden in the Southwesterly was out of the cooling effect of the 55 degree ocean water.
2021 should be a great season sailing in the land of fire and ice.
