I was once sailing near Dangerous Reef on a moonless night in fog near port Lincoln.
The compass kept on turning through 360 degrees and we finally shone a light out from the stern to look at the wake. Sure enough we were going in circles but did not believe the compass. Lucky we had a torch as a back up to the compass! Michael > On 26 Sep 2013, at 3:35 pm, DMcD <slutsw...@gmail.com> wrote: > > The compass rule reminds me of the offshore yacht racing rules which > required a sextant as an emergency backup for GPS or Satnav. > > Apart from almost nobody being able to use a sextant or being able to > use it on the deck of a small boat in a sea or being able to do the > calculations to fix your position some half an hour earlier, the > chances were that there was complete overcast during the event, > especially if it was anywhere near Victoria or Tasmania. > > Finally, they agreed that one could have a second (battery powered?) > GPS as backup for the main one. I can remember that my first Garmin > would take so long to get a fix when first switched on that the > rechargeable batteries would run out of electricity before you got a > fix. > > So there was no substitute for keeping a running fix on a chart. And > you can steer a yacht with a compass much better than a sailplane, > especially at night. > > D > _______________________________________________ > Aus-soaring mailing list > Aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net > To check or change subscription details, visit: > http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list Aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
