An important part of sailing into the seas is to get as good a skipper you can. One of the mandatory protocols to get this done is using traditional and modern tools to fix your position on the map. The position fixing is not an easy job because it can be difficult to find good charted locations or a proper log of latitude and longitude to start with.
It’s prone to errors when logging those numbers and that can make navigating a mess once you realize your errors. It is important to have your position fixed using additional waypoints along the route. When you do that properly on your passage, it will keep you on course.
It is an hourly job and when logging, whether your doing a transatlantic voyage or a quick hop between islands in Croatia you want something that is concrete and rock solid. Manually entering can be difficult, so use a GPS. The GPS is an essential tool to use today. You can create a random waypoint on the passage. The best is to use an already charted location that falls at the intersection of a latitude and longitude. These types of waypoints make it easier to feed the data to the GPS and receive the right bearing and distance.
Now, you can use that information to fix your position.
Mark everything on the chart
It is important to have all the position fixing on the chart. In order to do so, it is important to choose a set of good waypoints as just mentioned above. You can use traditional methods like finding the distance from known and charted locations and verifying the spot. When the waypoints are good, you can minimize the number of destinations that you need to enter. When these are less in the number you can keep your position track marked upon the charter just as it should be.
A very simple and effective technique to keep your job organized as a skipper and helps the navigator in due course.
Avoid hazard when in pilotage situations
One of the important bits of work you need to do as a skipper is when clearing bearings. The good way to do that is drawing a line on the chart that avoids the hazards. Keep it in the margin so that you avoid anything whether getting into or sailing out of a port. This is a widely followed strategy or practice among skippers.
Now, measure this and treat it as your clearing bearing. Mark it down and comment is if you need to. If there is a tacking, you can resort to even a pair of clearing bearings so that you can avoid any accidents.
These are some of the fine ways to deal with the basics of sailing. It might seem like a daunting task if you were to take care of everything on your own, but once you get hands-on and begin to learn things, it comes naturally. Taking up sailing and being a skipper is fun. Start as a hobby, learn from sailing courses, do practice and try to experiment things slowly. So, get going and don’t stop!
