NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Leg 56
From: Millard Kirk
Date: 1999 Jul 17, 7:52 PM
From: Millard Kirk
Date: 1999 Jul 17, 7:52 PM
Nav List. Dan I have figured where I went astray. I was doing the DR in magnetic. Working the problem using True Course I get the same answer. Although when I do DR on an adventure I convert most to magnetic.???? Maybe it is easier because we steer the boat using a magnetic heading. I seem to want to use every variable given in a problem such as variation and deviation. On my recent adventure from Norfolk, VA to Block Island a question arose on the leg from Cape May to Block Island between me an the captain. Using two different charts to get the course I got the Lat/Lon for the start of the leg from one chart and the Lat/Lon for the end of the leg from a second chart; the captain used a small scale chart to plot the course. I used my Celesticomp V to compute the course and he drew the course on the chart. There was a difference to be resolved of about 10 degrees. He could not figure the difference. He was working with True Course and I had taken the variation from the charts and converted my course to magnetic. When I asked him did he consider the variation, he realized we had the same course only one was true and the other magnetic. We set the auto helm to the course corresponding to the compass course, and to my amazement Block Island, RI showed up a day and three quarter later. We never touched the helm until the entry into the Great Salt Pond at New Harbor, Block Island, RI. Still............... Learning the Hard Way!! Millard Kirk KB8YQO | mailto:mkirk@marshall.edu 116 Lewis Ave | http://webpages.marshall.edu/~mkirk/ Barboursville, WV | A West Virginia Blue Water Sailor 25504 | Phone: (304) 736-6544 | First United Methodist Church, Barboursville, WV | Homepage http://www.gbgm-umc.org/bfumcwv/