Boy today’s study has got me dusting off the cobwebs of my brain. I don’t like maths, and with the added complication of degrees, minutes and seconds… arraggh! So Local Hour Angle – LHA… “What is that!?” I hear you cry. Well let’s find out together…
We take a short side track from our Celestial Navigation posts to do some quick revision on position lines and plotting positions on the chart. To work out our position by using a sextant sight, we first need to have an estimated position. This is worked out by using Dead Reckoning – or an educated…
A couple of years ago, myself and a group of friends were on a tiny island called Pitt Island in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean. We got up really early, and climbed up the top of a mountain to watch the sunrise. With the island’s 11 residents still fast asleep in the village…
Apologies for the delay between posts, I have had my boat in the haul out yard over the weekend and that has occupied all my study time! So to summarize where are are at so far in regards to our celestial navigation studies. We have covered off: The Sextant and how to take a reading…
Once upon a time people thought that the earth was the centre of the universe and that the sun and stars all revolved around us (sounds a bit like one of my ex-boyfriends). These ancient people started mapping the sun and the stars on to a sphere – the Celestial Sphere – basically it is…
Thanks again for reading along on my Celestial Navigation notes as I study for the Ocean Yachtmaster Exam. Hopefully you have already read the post about your Sextant. I have just also added a quick quiz at the bottom of that post, so if you want to skip back and read that first to check…
First of all I want to give a big welcome to everyone who is following along on with me as we navigate our way through the Celestial syllabus for my upcoming Ocean Yachtmaster exam. To ensure you don’t miss a post, you can add your email address to follow the blog on the right hand side…
Accurate weather forecasts are very important for sailors. Their predictions determine whether we set off on a passage, or wait for better weather. The information is used to pick a safe anchorage in which to shelter from a storm, or to identify a nice day to go for a cruise with friends. We place a…
Tropical Revolving Storms are not something you want to encounter when you are in a yacht. Thankfully they typically form only in special conditions, or seasons, so sailors can attempt to avoid them by sailing away from the areas where they form over those particular months. Cyclones in the South Pacific, Hurricanes in America and…
Sailors have a love hate relationship with the wind. We are a picky bunch, not enough wind can have you floating around at the mercy of the tide (and your motor), too much and life just becomes down right dangerous, and that is even before we start talking about which direction it is coming from!…
