The Wonders of Navigation.

[Captain Gordon Whittaker]

I was lucky enough to have two glorious years shell fishing from Jersey, but based mainly in Alderney, including the wonderful Summer of '76. During that time I got to know the waters very well, with a good knowledge of all the rocks. (Just the place for crab & lobster)! In 1985 I took a 7000 ton cargo ship down through the Alderney Race and managed 23 knots almost to Ushant. This was on the full bore tide and was most exciting, with all my local knowledge to the fore. It knocked quite a few hours off my ETA in Portugal and I was the sole ship in those waters. Not to be recommended at low water Springs, though. Sometimes Navigation can be quite fun. On reflection, I think my crew were rather terrified, poor souls! I even hove to and got a box each of live crab & lobster from my Jersey buddies, in exchange for a bit of duty-free. We ate well for a few days!

[John Cassels]

But much better than nothing when you're mid-ocean.And what's a mile or two inaccuracy when you're in such a location.?

With all due respect David , following your argument is anything better than nothing .

Let's not get into details at this stage , but what did you get ? , a running fix , a method you
would never dream of using when on the coast. A mile or two ??, you would be lucky if it was
within 5 nm of your DR.

Lets not even get started on the taking of the sights in the first place. An over romanticised method
and rightly consigned to the scapheap.

Any of you non deck members - donīt be fooled by this nostalgic claptrap.

[Ivan Cloherty]

With all due respect David , following your argument is anything better than nothing .

And a happy christmas to you too John

I for one used to enjoy taking sights, apart from DR what other method was there deep sea, Loran, DF and Decca Navigator (nil value 200nm from coast) were all useless really, but each to his own

[Captain Kong]

Let's not get into details at this stage , but what did you get ? , a running fix , a method you
would never dream of using when on the coast. A mile or two ??, you would be lucky if it was
within 5 nm of your DR.John Cassels.
/
. Hi John , I was on a 256,000 ton tanker sailing out of Ras Tanurrah out bound to the Cape, We had No RADARS, the only way to get arouind the Quoins and the other Islands first was by taking a running fix from the light, It gave me a good position and allowed me to alter courses and pass through the Quoins area quite easily, no problems ,and also in many other parts of the world when a RADAR fix was impossible
So that method cannot be discounted.
Cheers
Brian.

[John Cassels]

Merry x-mas Brian.

Surely you had at least a couple of cross bearings ?.