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Knowing Where You Are When we sailed around Vancouver Island in 1995 we used paper charts and a GPS. While a great improvement over paper charts and Loran (or taking bearings), this solution still necessitated plotting our position from the GPS onto the paper chart. In tight quarters, one was constantly going back and forth between the GPS and the plot on the paper chart. This is effective, but time consuming—leaving less time for other navigation functions like watching what is in front of you, watching the depth sounder, watching the radar and drinking your beer. VNS and other navigation programs eliminate manual plotting and automatically show where your boat is on the chart. In the Pacific Northwest it is easy to get lost when you are in unfamiliar waters. Everything essentially looks the same—mountains, islands, trees and water. VNS is very good at showing you precisely where you are. When visibility decreases, knowing where you are is of even greater importance. For instance, in the Pacific Northwest we have a system called the Vessel Traffic Service. Essentially this system routes big commercial vessels into designated traffic lanes. These traffic lanes are clearly demarked on a chart, which means you can use VNS to make sure you stay clear of them. When visibility is limited to less than 1/10 of a mile, there is great comfort knowing you are clear of the vessel traffic lanes. Keep in mind that “knowing where you are” is a different concept than collision avoidance. VNS can help keep you out of traffic lanes and from running into headlands. However, it can’t help you from running into uncharted moving objects, like freighters, other boats, logs and icebergs. Tools that will help you with collision avoidance are a good set of eyes, ears, and radar.
TGW.NET is property of Tim Whelan. All pictures, diagrams and text ©Tim Whelan 1980–2002, all rights reserved. Only permitted images and material may be downloaded from this web site. For usage, please see my copyright notice. | |
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Comparing what you see out
the "window" to what you see
on VNS. |
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