Navigation
Course
Introduction
This is an advanced online course on marine navigation, providing you with the 'conditio sine qua non' of offshore sailing. Nowadays most sailors tend to rely on modern equipment like differential GPS or Radar to navigate them through hazardous waters. Not only is such reliance unwanted and possibly dangerous, also the act of navigating by yourself is actually a lot of fun.So what is 'navigation'? "Navigare necesse est, vivere non est necesse" is latin for: to sail is vital, to live is not. This phrase tells us that both sailing and the 'conditio' of positioning are highly intertwined. Indeed, the art of navigation enables you to set a course and sail to your destination by using only nautical charts, a compass and your common sense.
The aim of this course is to teach you how to navigate safely while using the minimum of resources: methods which have been in use since the Middle Ages, and are still applied by the professionals. Indeed, this course greatly extends on - for instance - the RYA course and gives you the insight and feel of a seasoned navigator.
Finally, realize that we provide here just a theoretical course on navigation! Real navigation is more likely to involve sleep deprivation, low visibility, plus frequent encounters with the merchant marine on a collision course :-).
Enjoy!
This is chapter 0: Use the logo to navigate through this course.
Chapter 1 - Positions
Chapter 2 - Nautical Chart
Chapter 3 - Compass
Chapter 4 - Plotting
Chapter 5 - Piloting
Chapter 6 - Tides
Chapter 7 - Tide Prediction
Chapter 8 - Currents
Chapter 9 - Navigation Aids
Math - Running Fixes
Math - Distance of horizon
Compass Deviation table
Lunation - phases of the moon
Blurbs
"Wonderful" material, I run a school in Canada and have never come across materials on the net like this. Do you have a book or can we purchase a disk for training purposes? Regards,
Hi. A great site, your nav course is very well developed. I am an instructor of the Australian Volunteer Coast Guard.
What you have done is really good and I wait with baited breath to see how far you can take this.
Truly fantastic site. This navigation tutorial was stimulating. I want to throw my GPS overboard.
bobc2@gate.net
Excellent course. I can tell that you have taken a lot of time to develop this.
I know - I
am responsible for the navigation course that is used by the USCG Auxiliary.