Gregg wrote: > Secondly, I agree with your statement about your margin of error. > I can't speak for others, but my deck compass has 5 degree gradiants > making readings of better than 2-3 degrees nearly impossible (from my > point of view). My handheld is gradiated at 2.5(I THINK) degrees, > making finer readings possible, but it is nearly impossible for me to > do better than do occasional "spot checks" with my handheld - I can't > seem to hold the compass level and in front of me and paddle at the > same time<smile>. I have the Sailor II (from Aquameter), which is graduated in 5 degree increments, but the dial is so large I think I can hold the bearing to within a degree or two by estimating "fifths" of each increment, unless there is a lot of swell or wind. I should mention that I'm a chemist and that's the sort of thing I have a lot of practice doing -- it's SOP for using burets, for example. Even so, as you point out, it's one thing to be able to hold a bearing on a compass and another to actually be travelling in a uniform straight line. I've done a lot of glacier travel out here, some in total whiteout, and one time we got thoroughly socked in on the Blue Glacier on Mt Olympus on the Olympic Peninsula -- an ice cap maybe 1.5 miles in diameter. We found that a person walking along at the front of a rope team, holding a compass, would consistently slant off A LOT one direction, and SWEAR he was following a straight line in the direction of the bearing arrow. But, it was obvious to those behind the "navigator" he was veering. We solved the problem (lots of crevasse fields around us) by putting the compass in the hand of the guy at the REAR of the rope team and using the rope as our "vector," stepping in the footprints of the lead guy, who obeyed the prompts of the guy at the rear with the compass. That got us to the top of Olympus that day. I don't think there is a close parallel to this problem while paddling a yak, because most yaks track pretty well. But, I'd like more anecdotes with distance traveled, how much you were "off," etc. I know from my experiences in fog on the water, near-vertigo can be a problem if the fog is really thick! -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
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