Pioneer of the seas or Master Navigator?

by John Curnow on 13 Mar 2016 One of the most terrific things about cruising is going and seeing wonderful new places. Just letting your mind wander for a second to ‘revisit’ some of the things you have already seen is like taking a short break from your desk chair. There are not many locales where you can truly release you pioneering spirit these days, but from your seat you can certainly pretend.

As a proud Australian, cruising the Med was about as existentialist as it gets. Memories of mooring right next to, read virtually on top of, Cleopatra’s Baths in Turkey, or dropping the pick into 40m of water barely 20m off the beach, are flooding into my mind presently. About as quickly as the water I thought was going to come in after ripping the keel clean off on some charming ‘bricks’.

Yet it is manoeuvring a 22’ wide cat through a 24’ entrance with 50’ sheer vertical cliffs on either side, and into the most gorgeous little anchorage and restaurant, that is the mind journey that makes me smile the most. You see, for just like a little child, I actually did put my hand out from the helm position to scrape along the surface and marvel at how this huge mass just plummeted directly into the water and proffered no direct harm, unless I got horribly wrong…

In that one very description is the complete juxtaposition of this whole piece. If you go that close to rocks near the Great Southern Land, then you’re either spelunking or walking on the beach! A certain James Cook’s logs are full of references to that and also the dreaded Sou’easters.

Speaking of the Master Navigator, seeing the Endeavour River in Cooktown where they made repairs to their sturdy little Whitby cat (Coal and Timber ship), subsequently climbing atop Lizard Island to firstly see Cook’s Passage, and then ultimately traversing said corridor, were truly great joys. Take me there anytime…

So why rabbit on about Cook? Well it is interesting that some of the areas around these here parts still have Endeavour’s original surveys as the basis for the information on the chart. Yes it proves how good he and the junior officers were, but it does certainly remind you that Pilots, guides and head out of the companionway are also really crucial components of the mix. It’s a bit like when you go for coffee now. Everyone has their head down, deeply immersed in their Smartphone or tablet. Alas, you’re there to catch up, which requires face-to-face contact.

So don’t get stuck with the screen, get out and enjoy your yachting, knowing that one of the best ways to ensure your safety is to utilise all of the tools at your disposal and one of the most important of them is seamanship. Experience starts with actually being present to the occasion and not lost elsewhere.

All of which brings us to navigation. The Chartplotter and GPS are terrific, make that technological marvels, but they are not replacements for charts and all the tools. More like an addendum. The laws of over 90% of the countries you will want to visit require you to have the relevant charts for your cruising area, and your insurer demands you use them too. After all, charts are not gone, just printed on demand these days.

Also, unless you have the systems on board for Electronic Navigational Charting and also ECDIS (electronic chart display and information system), you just don’t have the accepted level of soft copy. Your electronic charts are subject to the package the reseller originally purchased and that organisation’s updating regimen. Remember, the Hydrographer’s charts, fine print and subsequent notices are the standard - and you don’t even have to be on the correct zoom level to see them either. They are right there for you to read and that’s more than handy. N.B. Everything else falls in underneath the chart system and on various timelines as well.

For ages I have always said ‘left’ and ‘right’ when helming. If it is good enough for the mighty US Navy, then I am more than happy to fall into line. Only a short while ago I read with great interest that after a 20-year hiatus, the USN is reinstating celestial navigation to the classrooms at its academy. Alas, you can now see how this very editorial came into being.

So I never excelled at the tables or taking star/sun shots, but the message is very clear for the USN. Sextants don’t get bugs or need updates and the tables don’t need to be plugged into juice to keep them going. All those phenomenal observations and meticulous notations several centuries ago still work today. It is kind of useful for the cruising sailor too, especially if the electrics go on the fritz, which oddly enough they kind of do around boats...

It is not about being a Luddite, and demanding the return of the square-riggers and the only cats at sea are there for corporal punishment. Rather, it serves to once again stress the previous point. You have to utilise all the tools available to you. There are still ways to gain knowledge of classical navigation and your club or insurer could well be the place to start looking for guidance on that. Your safety and enjoyment could well be the beneficiaries and you always have time on a long passage to deploy on various tasks, so make complete navigation one of them.

Do you love being on the ocean? Well remember to love them back too. They need our help. Now more than ever! Until next time…