I like the old school navigation of dead reckoning even if it’s not very accurate. With a compass built into our binoculars, its easy and accurate to get a bearing. As we were going down Lake Erie I was wondering where the Weland canal came in (the canal around Niagara Falls), I was hoping to see some commercial traffic. I could see it on the electronic charts but I couldn’t see it on land and then it hit me, this is a big loss with electronic charts, not being able to get a bearing to a target. I’m sure there is a way, but I haven’t figured it out yet. Likewise, I wouldn’t know how to put a bearing in to validate our current position. Instead, I use the phone or the iPad to validate the chartplotter and we already know how well those devices have worked in Canada -NOT. As long as GPS doesn’t go out I’ll be fine, but if I need to dead reckon, give me those paper charts!
It’s complicated but it really lets you pack them in. Having done it now 3 times now, I hope I’m done with it. For us it’s complicated by the tender hanging off the stern and our stern anchor rode being 300 ft long in the bottom of a lazarette under a pile of other items. All the rode has to come out into the cockpit for attaching to a tree on the shore. It makes for a messy operation. Let’s see if I can explain. To anchor med style, you have to be able to backup well, which being a sailboat puts us at a distinct disadvantage (can you hear me saying powerboat would be better here too, but I won’t say it). You also ignore the winds as you will back into a parking spot between other boats anchoring the same way. You “simply” pick a spot, throw out the bow anchor in front of it, back into the slot and tie a rope to something substantial on the shore, and put out bumpers for your neighbors. That’s all you have to do. So we pick...
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