A handy chartwork cheat for emergencies
The answer to the old chestnut ‘Electronic navigation is all very well, but what happens when the volts go AWOL?’ is simple. ‘Take the last known position from less than one hour ago in the log book, plot it on the paper chart and revert to traditional methods.’
Not long ago, a decent Yachtmaster could rattle down a fix in the time it takes me to talk about it. No more. GPS has had its wicked way and we’re all out of practice. If the time comes, we need foolproof, fast techniques. Here’s one:
This fix is plotted by a yacht steering about due east. All she needed to do was come up towards Selsey Bill for a short while and read off its bearing from the steering compass. The second position line was the transit of the two bar markers in Chichester harbour entrance. You couldn’t miss those with decent binoculars. A perfect fix; no need for a third line or a hand bearing compass. You can even pre-plot it if it helps. Easy, eh?