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Plotting Course Route

sbourgoin

Where the paddle takes me
Joined
Mar 2, 2019
Messages
100
Location
Port Alberni, BC
Morning,
I'm looking for website/youtube videos for refreshing how to plot a course using the marine charts (pen and paper). I will be taking my InReach Explorer, but would like to review how to plot courses with proper coordinates. I took my Assistant Overnight Guide Course a few years back, but unfortunately, I can't find my books.
Any recommendations/suggestions?
Thanks,
Shawn
 
Shawn, in what area are you planning to paddle?

Are you asking about plotting a course to follow before you take off or asking how to plot the course you think you are/were on while underway (called dead reckoning)?

To estimate the underway course, you'd need to know your speed/direction and the current's speed/direction.

Most my day-to-day sea kayaking goals are pretty much line-of-sight. But I still set a compass heading just for practice and because lack of visibility does happen.

My prime effort, pre-trip, is determining the direction of Ebb/Float currents, along with how strong they are and when they change. I plan as best I can so they are working for me. Next, I try to plan departure/arrivals at high tide; that is not always possible.

Using Google Earth at home, I estimate distance and direction from point to point. If destination points aren't published, I get Lat/Long (or UTM) and I put them into both Gaia and iNavX iPad apps. I also put them in my float plan - one copy with me, one copy left in the car, one copy sent to my "responsible party".

I highly recommend putting your campsite destinations in your InReach because things look different at see level :) and at various tide heights.

My Garmin has become less and less useful as a charting device so it is primarily a speedometer and ETA indicator, as well as reminding me about the sunset time. It will tell me when I'm at a waypoint even if it shows that point in the middle of the water without land mass.

One the shore, I'm more and more using my iPad Mini along with Gaia, iNavX, and AyeTides apps to confirm stuff.

I still carry a paper chart/map and two compasses. Yes, my drysuit has both belt and suspenders.
 
Thanks for that link...I didn't think of checking the Rec Guide....I always have one my desk, as I work at the Comox Rec Centre!
 
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