This week’s question; What are you going to do navigationally to find your way to Newport after your electronics have failed while on a passage from Bermuda?

Hopefully, this situation never happens, however, the potential for electronic or electrical failure is real, it doesn’t happen often but when it does it can leave the unprepared skipper in real trouble.

The answer then to this weeks question has several parts.

1. Hopefully, you have been maintaining at least a once daily plot of your position, it doesn’t have to be a mark on a chart though doing so on a long passage gives you a visual idea of just how far you have traveled and how far you have left to go.  It is nice to see the noon position steadily march along the rhumb line.  At the very least I hope you have written the daily noon position in your log.

If you have written your position down each day then you have a position to start your dead reckoning plot from even if that position is a day old.  In the time since you plotted or wrote down your last electronic position you are going to have a good idea of what direction you have been steering, you will likely also have a decent idea of how far you have traveled.  Using your course and distance traveled from your last position you can plot a fairly decent DR position to start your new navigational plot from.

2. You know the Gulf Stream that you are approaching is going to be pushing you to the East.  North of Bermuda the Stream is still traveling at a good clip, in fact, there is about as much current here as there is off of Florida.  Using 2.5k as an average speed for your crossing will give you an idea of how far East you will get pushed.  You can determine how long you are in the stream by the increase in water temperature as you enter it, in this area in spring and fall it is still 85°f +/- a few degrees.  The water to the south of the stream won’t be as cold as that on the North side but there is still a discernable increase in water temperature.  In addition, many times you will see a marked change in sea conditions or even a definitive line in the water along the North or West edge of the stream.

What you really don’t know as you approach the Gulf Stream is what the currents in the eddies on either side of the Stream are doing to you.  Are they pushing you East or West, speeding you up or slowing you down?  There really isn’t anyway without electronics to know.

3.  Since you don’t know exactly what all the currents are doing to you sailing a direct line for Newport will be tricky so you need to employ the old navigational trick of making landfall to one side or the other of your destination so when land is reached you know which direction to turn to make your destination.

In this case, I would sail towards New York City.  I chose NYC for several reasons.  To the East of the rhumb line in the Rhode Island Sound area, there isn’t a whole lot of land, there are several islands and just East of them shoal waters.

Additionally, the tall buildings in NYC are visible many miles out to sea.  With the lights atop the new World Trade Center NYC can under the right weather conditions be visible some 35-40+ miles out to sea.  Making landfall along the Long Island Shore is safe, there aren’t any off lying dangers.  When landfall is made along this shore you know turning East will bring you to the end of Long Island at Montauk Point.  Turning North around Montauk Point will send you in the general direction of Newport and at this point, there are enough landmarks, buoys, and Islands to find yourself on a paper chart.
Other Complications may include, Separation of stitched or stapled area Infections Leaks from staple lines Ulcers Vomiting, cialis price Diarrhoea Gallstones Abdominal hernia Oesophageal spasm GERD (gastrointestinal reflux disease) Depression Flatulence General abdominal pain Complications may differ based on biological modifications. Attempt to make these tadalafil 20mg from india encounters enjoyable, and discuss your sexual condition. If you are facing the problem of premature ejaculation, ejaculation found to takes place just on or prior sexual intercourse or within 1 or 2 minutes prior incursion. click my storefront best prices cialis This medicine levitra overnight shipping is made with effective ingredients and they are as effective as their branded counterparts.
Refining your DR plotting information so it is as accurate as possible will help.  If your speed instruments are out you can figure your speed by dropping a balled up damp piece of paper towel in off the bow and time its passage along the hull to the stern with a stopwatch, this will require two people, a dropper at the bow and a spotter at the stern.  Plug in the time and length of your boat into a time/speed/distance problem and you will know how fast you are sailing.  Repeat a couple of times a watch for more accuracy.  Use the following formula to account for the short distance and time in seconds (D x .6)/T=Speed.

Above all else, it is important to keep in mind along this route that while you may not know exactly where you are, there is land within 4 days or so to the West and North in the form of North America.  As you close the land all along this coast you will encounter commercial fisherman, sport fish boats, cargo ships and cruise ships.  All of whom will happily give you a position fix to begin anew your DR plot onto Newport.

The key to it all, a position to start from, I write down my position in the log each day at noon on a passage, I also plot the position on a paper chart.  I also occasionally haul out the sextant to keep my celestial skills somewhat fresh.  Last year the iPad we were using to navigate with died in St. Martin, it was the only chart plotter on board.  We sailed home to Gloucester using celestial and dead reckoning.  Skills every offshore passagemaker should have.  Neither skill is hard, they just take a little practice and the more practice the more accurate they become.

Electronics have made navigation easier and have removed the element of uncertainty that existed when the sun had been hiding for several days.  Most of the time today our chart plotters and GPS devices are pretty reliable and I hope you never experience a failure but that isn’t the way the world of saltwater and electronic devices and electrical systems work.  In addition, governmental and private agencies around the world are warning us hacking the GPS signal is easy and may have already been done.  If that is the case it is only a matter of time before some government or private hacker shuts down the system or scrambles the signal so it is no longer accurate.