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While we're on the subject of plotting, has anyone come up with a way
to make their plots look as neat as the ones in textbooks (i.e. like
they were made with a drafting machine or a CAD program)?

Since a lot of the marine plotting tools don't have scales on them (or
they're not scaled to the plotting sheets, or aren't always convenient
to use based on the geometry of the particular leg being drawn), the
best thing that I've come up with is to set a compass to the leg
length, and then lightly draw a small arc from the leg origin in
approximately the direction of that leg (it's easy enough to
"guesstimate" that within about 10 degrees or so).

Then when you draw the line for that leg you've got a handy "stopping
place" (and can also erase the unused part of the arc afterwards if
desired for even more neatness).

Anyone got a better plotting technique, or does neatness really only
count in textbooks?...  ;-)

--
GregR

--- "Greg R."  wrote:

>
> Bruce Hamilton raised an excellent point in the "Plotting Tools"
> thread:
>
> > I always like the fact that you are always calculating drift for
> > aircraft
>
> which is correct (and apparently not normally done in marine
> navigation
> - leeway, set and drift apparently being corrected whenever a fix is
> taken).
>
> Which reminded me of something that I've been meaning to ask - I've
> noticed that in marine navigation textbooks DR lines are usually
> labeled as being a "course" (i.e. TC 210, MC 150) - either true or
> magnetic,  depending on personal preference.
>
> But isn't what we're really plotting a heading? I think of a "course"
> as being the path that a vessel tracks over the ground (or over the
> bottom), and heading as the direction a vessel is pointed or steered
> in
> order to produce that course.
>
> Maybe "estimated course" (or maybe "course with no leeway/set/drift/
> correction) would be a better choice for it? Or maybe it's just a
> matter of semantics (and/or tradition)?
>
> I guess it really doesn't matter as long as everyone agrees on
> exactly
> what we're talking about, but I was curious about the ambiguity and
> thought I'd ask those who might be more familiar with the
> terminology.
>
> --
> GregR
>
>
>
> >
>


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