{"id":704,"date":"2018-08-30T19:57:50","date_gmt":"2018-08-30T19:57:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.forespar.com\/blog\/?p=704"},"modified":"2018-09-20T21:38:17","modified_gmt":"2018-09-20T21:38:17","slug":"what-do-you-do-if-the-battery-quits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.forespar.com\/blog\/2018\/08\/what-do-you-do-if-the-battery-quits\/","title":{"rendered":"What Do You Do If the Battery Quits?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n

So, you’re half way to the Island.\u00a0 It’s just after 10 pm, with no moon yet.\u00a0 It’s bumpy, and the visibility is poor.\u00a0 The 15 knot breeze is westerly, and the swell and wind waves are southwest.\u00a0 You know you’re getting pushed off course, but that’s OK, since both diesels are thumping away, and the GPS is telling where you are (and what to steer to get to the mooring).<\/p>\n

Then, the instruments go dark.\u00a0 Yikes!\u00a0 Now what?
\n\"Chart<\/a><\/p>\n

You have a compass mounted by the wheel.\u00a0 You whip out the Chart Book<\/a>, grab your pencil and mark the last GPS position on the chart, then use your parallels\u00a0to pencil a line to your destination.\u00a0 Then down to the compass rose, and determine a fair approximation of the compass course to the destination.\u00a0 Steer that course, and you’re good.<\/p>\n

Oh, wait.<\/p>\n

You don’t have charts, parallels, etc.\u00a0 And if you did, you don’t know how to use the low tech.\u00a0 You may just want to go real slow and listen for surf, and look for the red\/green flashers at the harbor entrance.\u00a0 Not at all what you’ve planned, and not at all fun, even if it works out.<\/p>\n

The kids, and grand-kids have asked “What are you doing?” when they see me using the hand-bearing compass\u00a0for a quick sight at a point of land, make a line on the chart, and repeat the process in another direction.\u00a0 I’d explain that where those lines cross is where we are – on the chart, and then explain the cross bearing, and how I got it, and how simple it really is.\u00a0 \u00a0Or, that same question when I scribble the time, course direction and speed when we’ve just cleared the harbor entrance, and an hour later walk over to the chart and draw a line, scribble some more, use the dividers, and draw an x.\u00a0 I give a quick explanation of dead reckoning, and how easy it is (and always a good idea on that dark night or foggy day).<\/p>\n

The next question was always “Why do you do that if you have a GPS?”\u00a0 And answer always is “This will tell me where we are”.\u00a0 No, it’s not as accurate as the WAAS GPS and the Chart Plotter.\u00a0 But close enough if you’re talking to the Coast Guard (hope that doesn’t happen).\u00a0 It was good enough before the electronics, and basic navigation still works – inexpensive, quick and easy use and easy to learn.<\/p>\n

What do YOU<\/em>\u00a0do if the battery quits?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tweet So, you’re half way to the Island.\u00a0 It’s just after 10 pm, with no moon yet.\u00a0 It’s bumpy, and the visibility is poor.\u00a0 The 15 knot breeze is westerly, and the swell and wind waves are southwest.\u00a0 You know you’re getting pushed off course, but that’s OK, since both diesels are thumping away, and… Read more: What Do You Do If the Battery Quits?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,1],"tags":[140,141,52,142,94],"class_list":["post-704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-content","category-uncategorized","tag-chart-book","tag-compass","tag-forespar","tag-hand-bearing","tag-navigation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forespar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forespar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forespar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forespar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forespar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.forespar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":713,"href":"https:\/\/www.forespar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704\/revisions\/713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forespar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forespar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forespar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}