Seamanship Secrets
1st Edition
0071605789
·
9780071605786
© 2009 | Published: April 23, 2009
"Secrets' is the modern Bowditch, written so clearly that navigation and seamanship will be comprehensible to anyone . . ."--Dave and Jaja Martin,circumnavigators and authors of Into the Light: A Family's Epic Journey"It's a great book. The prose is …
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Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Chart and Publication Secrets
A Navigator’s Most Trusted Companion
Chart Tints and Coloring
Flat Beach, High Cliffs, or Soaring Peaks?
How to Interpret Water Depths and Seabed Characteristics
Height Measurements for Safe Passage
Symbols That Shout “Danger!” and “Beware!”
Solve the Mystery of Aid-to-Navigation Symbols
Ranges Lead You to Safety
The Five Secrets for Visualizing Any Aid to Navigation
Chart Notes: Nuggets of Hidden Gold
Are Your Charts Up-to-Date?
Free Code-Breaker for 36,000 Mariners' Friends
Free Cruising Guides to Take You Anywhere
2. Chart Plotting and Preparation
Skipper’s Navigation Tools
Quick-and-Easy Review of Latitude and Longitude
How to Choose the Chart Scale You Need
Box-Plot Your Position
How to Convert Minutes, Seconds or Degrees to Miles
True versus Magnetic Directions and Two Ways to Find Variation
Check Your Steering Compass in Three Easy Steps
Bulletproof Your Charts for Longer Life
Paper Chartlets for Cockpit Ease
Complete 90% of Your Navigation by Annotation
Save Time with Custom Distance Scales
Invaluable Copilot: The Navigator’s Log
3. Easy Calculations and Adjustments
Lightning Fast Arrival Time Estimates
How to Make a Speed Graph in Three Easy Steps
Navigation Solutions in Less than Five Seconds
Harness the Power of the 3-Minute Rule
How to Select and Calibrate a New Compass
How to Choose and Adjust Marine Binoculars
How to Adjust a Sextant in Three Steps
How to Adjust Your Radar for the Best Picture
4. Piloting Tips and Techniques
DR Plotting and the Boat-Trackline Connection
How to Become Piloting Sequence Savvy
How to Determine When You Will Make Landfall
Secrets of the Most Accurate LOP on Earth
A Simple Solution to Running-Fix Confusion
Longshore Piloting When Landfall Iis in Doubt
How to Avoid Hazards with Danger Bearings
How to Clear Hazards without Plotting on a Chart
Depth Contour Secrets
Magic Boat Markers for Distance Off
Make a GPS Grid Highway to Avoid Dangers
How to Plot a GPS Position in Lless than 5 Seconds
Sail a Tacking Cone to a Windward Destination
ICW Secrets: Channel Jogs and Marker Silhouettes
5. Tides, Currents, and Leeway
How to Predict Tides Anywhere in the World
The Secret to Understanding Tidal Currents
Tap the Magic of the 50-90-100 Rule
Slack Intervals: Nature's Gift to Mariners
How to Measure the Effect of Current in Three Easy Steps
How to Cross the Gulf Stream or Any Other Ocean Current
How to Correct for Leeway Wind Drift
6. Bridges, Night Passages, and Other Tricky Navigation Situations
Cracking the Mystery of Bridge Lighting
Use the Secret of “Triple Timing” to Verify a Lighted ATON
How to Use S.T.O.P. for Easy Orientation
Range Sector Strategy Secrets
Red Sectors Give Instant Danger Bearings
7. Avoiding Collision by Eye or Radar
Bearing Drift: A First Sign that Danger Exists
Use Sectoring to Track a Crossing or Overtaking Vessel Caught in a Ship’s Blind Spot
How to Identify Motionless Contacts on Your Radar
Avoiding Collisions the E.A.S.A. Way
How to Cross behind a Stern-Towing Tug
Identify Vessels Towing Barges Alongside or Pushing Them Ahead
Quick Guide for Sailboat-to-Sailboat Situations
How to Become Sound Signal Savvy
How to Use the Three Factors of the Lookout
Radar Scope Plotting
8. Diesel Engine Maintenance and Powerboat Seamanship
A Simple User’s Guide to Inboard Diesel Engine Maintenance
How to Manually Shut Down a Diesel Engine
How to Stop a Runaway Engine
Fighting Engineroom Fires by Remote Control
Stay Safe When Hooking Up Shore Power
Wake Control and Emergency Wake Breaking
Decisions to Make Before Running an Inlet
How to Make a Fuel Consumption Graph
9. Sailboat Seamanship
The Sailing Skipper’s Eight-Component Inspection
Clearing Up the Mystery of Apparent Wind
How to Determine Wind Forces
How to Shape the Mainsail, a Sailboat’s Main Propulsion Unit
How to Shape Headsails for Power or Speed
Three Easy Steps for Heavy Weather Control
How to Remove a Jammed Sheet from a Winch
How to Sail Home if the Steering Fails
How to Prevent an Accidental Jibe
How to Short Tack in a Narrow Channel
10. Docking Seamanship
Single-Screw Boat-Handling Secrets
Twin-Screw Boat-Handling Secrets
Docking and Undocking with One Spring Line
Working into a Slip under Main or Headsail
How to Parallel Park between Two Boats
How to Warp a Boat around a Pier or Piling
How to Dock a Twin-Screw Boat with One Working Engine
11. Anchoring and Marlinspike Seamanship
How to Choose the Right Anchors for Your Boat
Choose the Proper Anchor Rode for Safety
Horizontal Loading: The Secret to Drag Prevention
The Five-Factor Guide to a Secure Anchorage
How to Increase an Anchor’s Holding Power
How to Rig a Two-Anchor Mooring System
Secrets to Anchoring under Power
Anchoring under Mainsail or Headsail
How to Use Casting Kedges for Ungrounding
How to Make a Snubber Bridle for an All-Chain Rode
The Five Kings of Marlinspike Seamanship
12. Weather and Water Wisdom
A Mariner’s Most Essential Weather Predictor
Using a Weather Pattern Log
Weather Information Resources for Mariners
How to Predict Wind Shifts in Low-Pressure Systems
Meeting a Line Squall
Lightning Timing and Protective Strategies
How to Predict Wave Heights for Cruising
Swell Secrets
How to Use Terrain Effect in Cruise Planning
13. Preventing and Handling Emergencies
Fuel-Fire Prevention Techniques
Galley Stove Safety Secrets
Overboard Recovery and Reality Checks
Use N.O.W. and Keep Crewmembers Alive and Well
Handle Flooding Emergencies with M.A.T.E.
How to Use Your Engine as a Dewatering Pump
Other Strategies for Staying Afloat when Damaged
Signs of Hypothermia and Cold-Water Shock
Skipper’s Immersion Survival and Treatments Guide
Appendix I. Useful Tables
Appendix II. Additional Concepts and Formulas
Bibliography
Index
"Secrets' is the modern Bowditch, written so clearly that navigation and seamanship will be comprehensible to anyone . . ."
--Dave and Jaja Martin,circumnavigators and authors of Into the Light: A Family's Epic Journey
"It's a great book. The prose is simple and clear . . ."
--John Vigor, author of The Seaworthy Offshore Sailboat
"The nautical tips and techniques presented are encyclopedic, yet the clear explanations demystify the topics . . ."
--Don Launer, contributing editor for Good Old Boat magazine
"It is a fine piece of work and should be read by anyone contemplating coastal cruising or blue water voyages. It definitely deserves a place in the offshore yacht's library . . ."
--Ted Brewer, yacht designer, author, and offshore racing and cruising sailor
Be a Better Skipper
In the night, wind, rain, fog, big seas, strong currents, or congested waters, when there’s no time for textbook seamanship solutions, what you need are shortcuts and techniques that work quickly and reliably every time.
Distilled from the vast accumulated lore of seamanship and navigation, here are the absolute essentials--185 techniques that work without fail in the pilothouse or the exposed cockpit or flying bridge of a shorthanded sail- or powerboat. John Jamieson shows you how to:
- Set up a clipboard chart table for cockpit use
- Avoid hazards with danger bearings or a GPS grid highway
- Estimate current speeds with the 50-90-100 rule
- Track other boats in poor visibility using radar plots and bearing drift
- Sail home without a rudder or get your twin-screw boat home on one working engine
- Dock or anchor under any conditions
- And much, much more
Even in this age of electronic navigation you need to know how to eyeball your boat through any situation. Each of the techniques in this cut-to-the-chase book has shown itself to be absolutely repeatable. It will work this time, the next time,and the time a er that, in conditions fair or foul.