Overview
Main description
Find Your Way at Sea, No Matter What
“Inherently interesting and fun to read . . . provides the clearest understanding of general navigation principles we've seen yet.”--BoatU.S.
“Thorough and authoritative.”--Sea Kayaker
“A definitive work of instant appeal to seamen of all levels of experience.”--The Navigation Foundation
Every sailor knows that instruments can fail. Things get wet, break, fall overboard. Whether you’re safe on your boat or drifting in a life raft, let David Burch show you how to find your way no matter what navigational equipment you have. Often relying on common materials like a small stick, a plastic bottle, even a pair of sunglasses, Burch explains how to make use of all available means--from the ancient skills of Polynesian navigators to the contrails of airliners overhead--to calculate speed, direction, latitude, and longitude and to perform all aspects of piloting and dead reckoning.
Learn how to
- Steer by sun, stars, wind, and swells
- Estimate current and leeway
- Improvise your own knotmeter or plumb-bob sextant
- Find the sun in a fogbank
- Estimate latitude with a plate and a knotted string
- And more vital information
Table of contents
List of Figures and TablesForeword to the First EditionPreface to the Second EditionAcknowledgments Chapter 1. Introduction What Is Emergency Navigation? The Scope of This Book Preparation for Navigational EmergenciesChapter 2. Time and Place at Sea Latitude Regions and Seasons Defined Time in Navigation Finding Position versus Keeping Track of PositionChapter 3. Directions at Sea Choosing a Route Compass Checks Steering without a CompassChapter 4. Steering by Wind and Swells Reading the Wind Swells, Waves, and Ripples Wind ShiftsChapter 5. Steering by the Stars Know the Whole Sky How the Stars Move Steering by the North Star The Summer Triangle The Great Square of Pegasus Finding North without the North Star Steering by Orion Steering by Gemini and Procyon Steering by Scorpio Steering by the Southern Cross and the South Pole Steering by Overhead Stars Steering by Zenith Stars Star Paths Timing Low StarsChapter 6. Steering by the Sun Sunrise and Sunset Morning Sun and Afternoon Sun Local Apparent Noon Solar Time Method The Shadow-Tip Method The Tropics Rule for the Sun Sun Crossing Due East or West Sun Compasses When the Sun Is ObscuredChapter 7. Steering by Other Things in the Sky The Moon The Planets Clouds, Birds, and Planes SatellitesChapter 8. Steering in Fog or Under Cloudy Skies How to Make a Magnetic Compass Direction Finding with a Portable Radio Streaming a Line along the Centerline Finding the Sun as a Viking WouldChapter 9. Currents Ocean Currents Tidal Currents Wind-Driven Currents Coastal CurrentsChapter 10. Dead Reckoning Emergency DR Finding Boat Speed DR Errors from Speed and Direction DR Errors from Current and Leeway Progress to WeatherChapter 11. Latitude at Sea Makeshift Altitude Measurements and Calibrations Makeshift Altitude Corrections Latitude from Polaris Latitude from Zenith Stars Latitude from Horizon-Grazing Stars Latitude from Double Transits of Circumpolar Stars Latitude from the Sun at LAN Latitude from the Length of Day Keeping Track of LatitudeChapter 12. Longitude at Sea Longitude from Sunrise or Sunset Longitude from LAN (the Equation of Time) Finding UTC from a Known Position Keeping Track of LongitudeChapter 13. Coastal Piloting without Instruments Signs of Land at Sea Visible Range of Lights and Land Distance Off Running Fix from Radio Bearings Course Made Good in CurrentChapter 14. What to Do with What You’ve Got Routine Navigation with Everything Position by Radio Contact Everything but UTC Everything but a Sextant Everything but Sight Reduction Tables Everything but a Compass Everything but an Almanac Nothing but UTCAnnotated Bibliography Basic Marine Navigation Almanac Data Stars and Star Identification Finding Longitude without Time No-Instrument Navigation Emergency Seamanship Periodicals of Interest to Emergency Navigation Meteorology and Oceanography Published Aids to NavigationIndex
Author comments
David Burch is a renowned expert on navigation with several
successful titles and a high profile in the boating community. The founder
and director of the Starpath School of Navigation, Burch holds a Ph.D. in
physics and has more than 60,000 miles of ocean sailing experience.
Back cover copy
Find Your Way at Sea, No Matter What
“Inherently interesting and fun to read . . . provides the clearest understanding of general navigation principles we've seen yet.”--BoatU.S.
“Thorough and authoritative.”--Sea Kayaker
“A definitive work of instant appeal to seamen of all levels of experience.”--The Navigation Foundation
Every sailor knows that instruments can fail. Things get wet, break, fall overboard. Whether you’re safe on your boat or drifting in a life raft, let David Burch show you how to find your way no matter what navigational equipment you have. Often relying on common materials like a small stick, a plastic bottle, even a pair of sunglasses, Burch explains how to make use of all available means--from the ancient skills of Polynesian navigators to the contrails of airliners overhead--to calculate speed, direction, latitude, and longitude and to perform all aspects of piloting and dead reckoning.
Learn how to
- Steer by sun, stars, wind, and swells
- Estimate current and leeway
- Improvise your own knotmeter or plumb-bob sextant
- Find the sun in a fogbank
- Estimate latitude with a plate and a knotted string
- And more vital information
David Burch is the founder and president of the Starpath School of Navigation (www.starpath.com) and the author of nine books on navigation, including Radar for Mariners and Fundamentals of Kayak Navigation. His articles appear in Cruising World, Ocean Navigator, Sailing, Sea Kayaker, and elsewhere. A past Fulbright Scholar with a Ph.D. in physics, Burch has more than 70,000 miles of ocean sailing experience, ranging from the Arctic to Tahiti. He has sailed across the Pacific twelve times, three times navigating winning yachts in the Victoria - Maui Yacht Race. He has received the Institute of Navigation’s Superior Achievement Award for outstanding performance as a practicing navigator.
