This course requires Navigation I

This course requires Navigation II

This course requires Seamanship I

This course requires Seamanship II

Our Coastal Navigation course is designed to acquaint you with all the tools, publications and skills required for successful coastal navigation. It also provides you with all the academic and theoretical knowledge you need to develop great navigation skills in the Coastal Passagemaking course. Coastal navigation skills are the underpinning of all safe and efficient distance cruising, whether you're harbor hopping to Mexico or just occasionally out of sight of land because of Bay fog. You will learn not only how to find your way and how to identify and avoid hazards along your route, but also how to minimize the distance you need to travel and maximze your progress toward your destination. In addition, many of the concepts and skills taught in this class are directly transferable to Celestial Navigation as well.

Successful completion prepares you to:

• Navigate your way along the coast using charts, compass and your own skills.
• If your GPS stops working, you'll be able to find your way to safe harbor.
• Successful completion prepares you for Coastal Passagemaking as well as Offshore Passagemaking.

TOPICS COVERED

• Deduced reckoning

  Known as Ded or Dead Reckoning, this is the 'shorthand' for navigators.

• Calculating an estimated position

  When life isn't perfect and you can't get a three bearing fix.

• Calculating set and drift

  Handling current set and drift is the core of what advanced coastal navigation is about.

• Interpreting tide and current charts

  Know the speed and direction of current and the height of the tide at any given time, any given location.

• Establishing a running fix

  The coastal cruising sailor's life saver.
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• Taking bearings and ranges

  The basics – good bearings make for good fixes.

• Radar, GPS, and other electronic aids to navigation

  They make life easier but they require a certain amount of training to use properly.

• Using a deck log

  Proper Navigation begins and ends with good records. You can't tell where to go unless you remember where you've been!

• Practical use of navigational publications

  A wealth of information exists if you know where and how to look.

• US Sailing plotting conventions

  Learn how to manage charting and logs on a small yacht with conventions that account for small nav tables and charts on laps in the cockpit!