Plotting a course on a GPS

[SgBFish]

Noel is dead right.
An up to date chart is your best navigational aid because one day your GPS will let you down, or you may put the wrong coordinates in it.
Even then you have to be alert because marks change. A few years back they changed the lateral marks to the NW of the top of the Pearl channel to Cardinal marks.
Always carry your chart and before you go out draw lines on it between points you regularly traverse with bearings and back bearings on those routes. After awhile you will remember the bearings.
Get yourself a set of parallel-rulers; they allow you to accurately determine bearings on your chart from the compass rose on the chart.

Scott

[TOPAZ]

Do yourself a HUGE favour, and enrol in a Basic Navigation Course.
Shortcuts and gadgets have NO place in navigation - there is no substitute for learning the basics properly - it may one day save your life!
You will find that although complex at first, once you get a grasp of the basic principles, navigation for it's own sake can be a lot of fun.
Remember that your GPS is only a navigational tool, as is your compass etc. - it is NOT the be-all and end-all of the navigational process.
In NSW, you are required BY LAW to carry charts and a compass if more than 2 nautical miles offshore - they are pretty useless if you don't know how to use them.
I would suggest you support your local Coastal Patrol, Coast Guard, VMR etc and attend one of the excellent courses that most of them run.


Richard
(ex RVCP Lecturer)

[Noelm]

yep, navigation is kind of fun and a parallel ruler is definately necessary for accuracy, I don't think it is a matter of your GPS can let you down (trust me it can) but on longer trips in unfamiliar waters, you need charts, hand held compass, ruler, clock AND a GPS to make life easier, not to make you lazy, I recently bought a charter boat back from the Whitsundays to Sydney and after we left the Southern end of the Islands we went non stop to Bundaberg (we had to pull in because of really bad weather) and I can assure you, without using all of those things it would have been a very spooky trip at night, we had two charts setup and two people doing independant Navigating to make sure of where we were, was kind of good around 1770, well it was to me anyway, because I had never been there before, mind you it was about Midnight when we went around the headland with the Lighthouse on it (can't remember what it was called) but on the chart it was clearly marked as having a "red sector" and I was in charge at the time, I had marked on the chart the time and place when the sector would change, sh!t was I relieved when it was withing 30 seconds of my calculations. My mate was also nearly spot on, bloody long way to Bundaberg from there in a sailing boat with a million mile an hour southerly in your face!

[Splash]

there was a bloke on bribie that printed a clear
gps user aid
you place the aid over your map to get accurate
marks in degrees/minutes seconds
i bought mine years ago @ still have it
cheers brian

Thanks boys - a TAFE course does sound great but unfortuantely cannot happen up here in Coon land.

This aid BigBrian refers to sounds interesting and I am nterested in getting it - if I knew what it is called.. Thoughts?

Splash

[PinHead]

reading a chart is not as simple as you may think.. you have to take into account the variation for the year and taken from the nearest rose on the chart etc etc. Then to use your compass correctly you need to make sure the compass adjuster has certified it. The old acronym..CADET..then use TVMDC..and on it goes...it is fun to work out a course using those tools.

[Sea-Dog]

I have previously put a post up about a free online navigation course.

Here is the link:

http://www.sailingissues.com/navcourse0.html

It is well worth the look.

[Splash]

Thank you.

Is there such an aid that exists that when you place the aid over your map you get accurate marks in degrees/minutes seconds...?

Splash

[bj]

Brian, I bought the clear plastic Nav Aid you refer to years ago also & use it a fair bit. Very handy bit of gear. The address on the User Aid is Stereographics P O Box 426 Bribie Island 4507 I can put the Ph No up also if wanted .Cheers

[Splash]

THanks BJ - Phone number would be good.

[Noelm]

Pinhead is correct, as I mentioned much earlier on, all that info is printed on the chart, and is the reason why a chart AND a GPS is to be used, then on really long voyages we get into "great circles" and learn that the shortest distance between two points is NOT a straight line, but for most you would never need to know all that, and I think maybe the "thing" that the others are referring to is called a "mercator" map, what it does is straighten out all the lat and long lines (as in when you see the world on a flat map.

[bj]

The phone No for the G.P.S. user aid is "07"34084225. Splash it's been a few years since I got mine so don't know if they are still around, but the address I posted above & this Ph No was the contact when I bought mine . Cheers.

[Tangles]

I remember when GPS first came out when on some yachts, at one point it was reading 3 miles inland, better nowdays .

I find GPS great but grew up with charts and now im in a tinnie with a GPS, i always still use the chart first, Beacon to Beacon is a bit useless as it doesnt show depths, but ok for general stuff in a tinnie, a proper chart with depths in a tinnie isnt too practical, so i tend to work it out on the chart first and basically use the GPS for depths, where a GPS does hold its own for me is at night in a tinnie, more friendly than a chart