PRACTICAL NAVIGATION FOR MODERN BOAT OWNERS
CONTENTS CONTENTS 1 THE GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM HOW YOUR GPS RECEIVER TELLS YOU WHICH SATELLITES IT CAN SEE HOW GPS WORKS ACCURACY OF THE FIX GPS BLACKOUT DELIBERATE INTERFERENCE GPS IS LINE OF SIGHT SELECTIVE AVAILABILITY DIFFERENTIAL GPS WIDE AREA AUGMENTATION SERVICE SWITCH-ON DELAYS MEASUREMENT OF SPEED MEASUREMENT OF COURSE MEASUREMENT OF HEADING ERRORS IN COG AND SOG 2 OUR ADDRESS ON THE EARTH’S SURFACE THE EQUATOR LATITUDE GREENWICH MERIDIAN LONGITUDE OUR ADDRESS INTERNATIONAL DATE LINE MEASUREMENT OF LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE DISTANCE AND DIRECTION DIRECTION THE FLAT EARTH THE SPHERICAL EARTH AND ‘MAP DATA’ CHART ERRORS CHART SCALE MEASURING LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE CHART SYMBOLS 3 THE MAGNETIC COMPASS THE EARTH’S MAGNETIC FIELD STEERING COMPASSES COMPASS DEVIATION COMPASS CORRECTION DIY COMPASS ‘SWING’ FLUXGATE COMPASSES 4 CONSTRUCTING A ROUTE USING SECOND-HAND WAYPOINTS LOADING THE ROUTE INTO THE GPS CONSTRUCTING A ROUTE ON AN ELECTRONIC CHARTPLOTTER OR PC 5 TIDES TIDAL HEIGHTS TIDAL FLOW FINDING THE VALUE OF THE TIDAL FLOW 6 BOAT SPEED SPEED OVER THE GROUND SPEED THROUGH THE WATER MEASURING SPEED THROUGH THE WATER LOG ERRORS CONTENTS 7 DEPTH SOUNDERS HOW THEY WORK DEPTH UNITS CALIBRATION DEPTH ALARMS FALSE ECHOES FISH? NDERS 8 FINDING POSITION GPS OTHER METHODS POSITION LINES FIXING YOUR POSITION USING POSITION LINES ERRORS IN POSITION LINES HOW FAR CAN YOU SEE? WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS CHARTPLOTTERS 9 PASSAGE PLANNING OVERVIEW DETAILED PLAN JUST PRIOR TO DEPARTURE PASSAGE PLANNING – PROCEDURE PREPLAN FOR THE PLANNED DAY OF DEPARTURE PASSAGE MAKING PASSAGE GRID APPROACH ‘SPIDER’S WEB’ COMPASS ROSE AS A WAYPOINT UNMARKED DANGER AS A WAYPOINT CLEARING BEARING 10 PILOTAGE WHO DOES THE PILOTING? MEANS OF PILOTAGE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM OF BUOYAGE INTERNATIONAL BUOYAGE – ALL AREAS PLANNING THE BASICS OF PREPARING A PILOT PLAN MAKING A PILOTAGE PLAN WORKING AS A TEAM 11 AUTOMATIC IDENTI? CATION SYSTEM WHAT IS AUTOMATIC IDENTI? CATION SYSTEM? HOW DOES AIS WORK? CLASS A AIS CLASS B AIS AIS DISPLAYS THE AIS DISPLAY ON A CHARTPLOTTER AIS CLASS B TRANSCEIVER 12 RADAR HOW RADAR WORKS NAVIGATION USING RADAR PILOTAGE USING RADAR RADAR OVERLAY ON A CHART PLOTTER SETTING UP YOUR RADAR RADAR USED FOR COLLISION AVOIDANCE 13 AUTOPILOTS TYPES OF AUTOPILOT USING THE AUTOPILOT 14 PERSONAL COMPUTERS WHAT TYPE OF PC WHAT MAKE OF CHART-PLOTTING SOFTWARE? WHAT TYPE OF ELECTRONIC CHARTS? ELECTRONIC CHARTS FOR PC BASED CHARTPLOTTERS SELECTING THE SOFTWARE CONSTRUCTING A ROUTE SAILING YACHT ROUTE PLANNING IX CONTENTS SENDING THE ROUTE TO THE GPS AIS ON A PC RADAR ON A PC NAVTEX ON A PC TIDES ON A PC CONNECTING TO THE BOAT’S SYSTEMS