Using All Your Senses Navigating

[Roger Long]

I was coming out of the Haulover Canal today into the 90 degree turn, which is very wide with plenty of room, and a sailboat was coming the other way. I kept edging over to starboard for a standard pass but he kept moving over as well. At the last minute, I realized that he was going to push me right into the green day beacons so I quickly cut across his bow and the short cut across the wide corner of the channel. I then could see him and realized that he had his head down buried in his GPS and was trying to trace the magenta "Recommended Route" line on the chartplotter around the turn. It goes right around the outside of the turn.

He never even saw me.

On the other side of the bell curve, I was heading into anchor at a likely looking spot I found on the chart just before New Smyrna Beach. This bird is standing on that spot ("x" on the chartlet):

I noticed something slightly different about the wave pattern ahead. You can almost see it in the photo. I did a quick "U" turn and then had the idea of just continuing around in about three 360 degree turns. This set up a bunch of waves and, when they went over the shoal, I could clearly see that there was very little water there.

I anchored a little closer to the channel than I planned and saw the birds walking along the shoal a few minutes later. It now extends from the day marker all the way to the point. Lat / Long provided in the lower right corner for anyone passing this way.

 

[JustDucky]

Roger,
If you get a chance report it to http://cruisersnet.net/ and they can share it with other interested crusiers.

 

[Roger Long]

If you get a chance report it to http://cruisersnet.net/ ..

Good idea, I just did.

 

[Jimm]

A great object lesson in the reliability of charts ... or not! And another point for the value of shore birds!!

 

[Wanderer138]

A great object lesson in the reliability of charts ... or not! And another point for the value of shore birds!!

True! The same goes for depthsounders. Even with a shallow draft, I use mine constantly. Some of the dredge spoil islands along the Indian River/Mosquito Lagoon ICW have eroded over the years to just below the water surface. The displaced material sometimes ends up as uncharted shoals between the islands.

 

[Ian McColgin]

It's a real skill. One of my tug captains had spent a great deal of his career operating in third world and rapidly changing systems - like the Amazon to the border and wierd little ports in Indonesia and the east coast of Africa. His constant explaining to me of how he was reading even well marked routes, like the Connecticut up to Hartford, was as valuable as reading the eddies around a bridge pylon as we eased a freighter around a sharp turn to its berth.

 

[Benny17441]

Yes, charts can't keep up with shoaling. In some of the passes they keep movable markers to reposition them as needed.

 

[jibes138]

Roger,
Remember to use 5 blasts on a horn as a danger signal if someone is not paying attention. Good thing you were alert. I still use paper charts, I've been on boats with the chart plotters and it seems all you do is stare at the TV screen all day. I want to see where I'm going, the wildlife, and the scenery. People have become addicted to their video screens, have to have them 100% of their waking life.

 

[AtlanticAl]

This is the problem with modern sailing, people relly way too much on electronics. A good film for showing you a bit about going down a river in a boat, is the African Queen, with humphery bogart. Today, you get radar assisted collisions, radio assisted collisions, and so far i havent heard of GPS assisted collisions, but its coming. You dont need all that stuff. A depth sounder is good, back in the day, sailors would navigate back to their home ports in fog, with just a lead line, they would know from the depth, and the bottom that came up on an armed lead, where they were. I worked on tugs, where the captains had been on those tugs, on the same river since they left school, and where i was taught to use charts, and take fixes, all they used were tide tables, everything else was in their head, they knew the exact position of their vessel from looking around them, and they new the depth of the water they were heading into from their tide tables, they knew the places they could pass over at high tide, that they had to go round at low tide.

My advice would be, before you start rellying on all the instruments, learn firstly to sail, then learn to read rivers (if you are going to sail on them) then use your instruments to complement your knowledge.

 

[Roger Long]

so far i havent heard of GPS assisted collisions, but its coming.

I know from my days as a pilot that they have killed a lot of pilots.

You dont need all that stuff.

Yes you do. It's true you can get around without it but, used properly, it adds so much to safety and reduces workload and fatigue so much that it would be irresponsible to go without it.

My advice would be, before you start rellying on all the instruments, learn firstly ...

And excellent advice. I ran fog in Maine just as much as I do today when the most complex thing on the boat was my wind up Timex watch. I don't think anyone can ever learn to use GPS and the other electronics as competently without having that experience.

When I learned to fly, I used only paper charts on my lap for the first three years so I would develop the skills and sense of timing. Only after that did I turn the Loran on (GPS was just coming in at the time.)