| Title: | SAILING |
| Notice: | Please read Note 2.* before participating in this conference |
| Moderator: | UNIFIX::BERENS |
| Created: | Wed Jul 01 1992 |
| Last Modified: | Mon Jun 02 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 2299 |
| Total number of notes: | 20724 |
The often simple but effective techniques used by ancient navigators have impressed and fascinated me for some time now. I have a handful of them I'd like to share...the with hope that many of you will do likewise. A collection here in this note might prove entertaining, humorous and informative. I'll start it off with a technique called "Bobbing the Light". When returning to a familiar port at night skippers were seen bobbing up and down as they stood behind the helm. They had just spotted the local lighthouse and were verifying that it was just at the horizon. If they could occult it by bobbing and they knew the maximum visible range they then obtained a fare fix of their position by bringing their compass to bear on the light. I think this may have been the origin of certain sea shanty dances. Here's another. A Maine skipper was making his way through thick fog when his fare expressed great fear of grounding and drowning. The skipper said 'not to worry'. After an amazing hard to port turn the vessel slid into its mooring as if by magic. The fare just had to know how this was accomplished. The skipper said "Ya make the turn when aunt Martha's bakery smells stronger then the flats!" You can dub this technique "Nasal Navigation". There are many legitimate examples. Jerry
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1149.1 | potatoes? | MSCSSE::BERENS | Alan Berens | Tue Mar 14 1989 08:29 | 9 |
Another Maine navigation technique for fog is to station a hand in the bow with a sack of potatoes. Every so often the hand throws a potato forward. When it don't splash, you turn. Seriously, when we were approaching Bermuda at night the islands were upwind, and we were able to smell the vegetation well before Gibb's Hill light appeared over the horizon. We were grateful for any aid to navigation at that time. | |||||
| 1149.2 | Oh, those wacky Mainiacs | AKOV12::DJOHNSTON | Tue Mar 14 1989 10:37 | 11 | |
Another Maine "navigation" story relate by Walter Cronkite in his
book concerns an old downeaster explaining to his passenger that
he indeed knew every rock in the fog bound harbor and not to worry.
When they bounced hard off one of them he said "Yep, there's one
now."
I laughed my ass off the first time I heard about potatoe navigation,
too.
Dave
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| 1149.3 | Well there goes lunch! | CIMNET::CREASER | Auxiliary Coxswain | Tue Mar 14 1989 14:52 | 9 |
Speaking of hearing the potato splash, there many good reasons to
have someone forward listening for breaking surf or waves lapping
against the other guys hull!
Guess this is called Otological Navigation.
Jerry
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| 1149.4 | Caveman sonar | CDR::SPENCER | John Spencer | Wed Mar 15 1989 17:20 | 25 |
Fog in Maine brings forth a varied repertoire of techniques for navigating
in and near it. Here are a couple I've used when teaching at Outward
Bound, both of which mystified/confused students:
1) In wondering if that fogbank is getting closer or further away, by
clapping my hands (if it's quiet) or blowing a short blast on the
freon horn, I could do a rough estimate of the distance:
Time-in-seconds / 10 = approx distance in miles
(The denominator is determined by the speed of sound at sea level,
which is about 1000'/sec, or 5-secs-per-mile; divide by 2 again, since
the sound has to travel out and back, and you only care how long one
leg of that journey is.)
Sound bounces off a fog bank remarkably clearly.
2) Approaching a land mass while sailing in a fog bank, the same
technique is equally useful. I used to take ranges this way, even
locate islands as we slipped by out of sight of them, while leaving
the students still "in a fog," amd dependent upon themselves to
navigate to their destination. Great fun!
J.
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| 1149.5 | Maine humor | MORO::SEYMOUR_DO | Life's a reach, and then you jibe | Wed Mar 15 1989 17:58 | 12 |
From "Bert and I":
"Captain wasn't that a rock we just hit?"
"Yup"
"Didn't you see it?"
"Hit it, didn't I?"
Don
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