Joe points out an important issue: accurate bearings. many beginner navigators mistakenly believe that they need the "absolute" type of bearings that one would find in the shelter and solidity of an aircraft carrier's bridge. It sure appears that way form the diagrams in Dutton's and Chapman's. That's just not true, nor is it necessary. On Joe's "bouncing yacht," regardless of whether you're using your main steering compass or a hand bearing one, you are taking what are called relative bearings. Bearings off two known points and general directions that will give you a "fix." All the nav books note that fixes cannot ever be established to be "perfect." What they tell you is the general vicinity of where you can be, simply based on the distance to one or both of the objects and the ability to note the bearings and transfer them to a chart. While I've been doing it for years, when i first started I didn't bother marking up my charts with pencil lines, I just used my hands: "Oh, Rock #1 over there, Post #3 over here at these angles, and bingo, I'm somewhere around HERE!" It's this frustration with math and the anticipated need for "perfection" that I see getting a whole lot of folks confused and anxious about using bearings on a boat. As many have said, right here on this thread, go out and try. If bearings are what you are using, you're using a portion of ded reckoning anyway. One of my log looks says: "Good navigation is the art of knowing where you're not!"
