Charts vs. Chart Plotters -- Yet Again

If you read my entry "Seasickness," you know that my last sail had its ups and downs. That's putting it midly. I became extremely sick. The Coast Guard rescued me from the boat I was on, and raced to me to shore to a waiting ambulance. I spent about 48 hours in the hospital, and my doctor and nurse practitioner are still following me closely for lingering effects.

The whole experience -- when I wasn't hanging my head over the side of the boat, that is -- was an interesting display regarding the debate between chart plotters and older methods of navigation.

The skipper of the boat I was on, Samantha Ring, is an unapologetic geek when it comes to navigation skills. We recently found out that our late friend Al Davis often used her as an example of one of the best students of celestial navigation he had ever had. Now, Samantha is young in years compared to me. She hasn't yet had the opportunity to do more than weekend hops on her boat. She teaches during the year, and anyone who has taught knows that this does not necessarily mean that your weekends are free. During the summer where she lives, while it is technically possible to sail, the winds are so light that it can be hard to travel any distance. In addition, the risk of afternoon storms combined with the dangers of coastal sailing in a storm off west Florida (lots of shallow water) mean that you go out early and come in early. That also limits the distance you can cover.

So the only reason Samantha had to learn celestial navigation was curiosity. This is a trait she holds in abundance, however. She has also learned extensively about coastal navigation.

In spite of this, I have been urging her to embrace the idea of adding a chart plotter to her set of tools and skills. She has actually been one of the people who believes that the cognitive skills of navigation are superior to electronic support, and after my most recent day on the water it would be hard to disagree with her.

Nevertheless, I talked her into having a chart plotter cable installed on her boat so she could do a test trial with my chart plotter and see if she might find it a useful addition. She was skeptical, but also is making a big leap shortly in the distance she's sailing, so she went along with it.

Unfortunately the installer connected it to dead wires and did not have time to correct this mistake before we left. But my goal was to show her that the two skill sets -- coastal navigation and using a chart plotter -- could work together, so I did the best I could with Navionics on my cell phone (it may be great on an IPAD or computer, but I have used it twice now on my phone and don't recommend it when used that way. IMO it's too clumsy for the small gain in information, but YMMV.)

Rather than try to snake her way through the many islands south of St. Petersburg without the rapid information a chart plotter provides, Samantha chose to go out to sea a bit and then angle in to our goal, Longboat Channel into Longboat Key. It was an ambitious plan for three reasons:

1) We had a much later start than anticipated

2) We had unexpected mechanical problems with the mainsail

3) The fuel gauge (which proved to be markedly inaccurate, as I understand it a fairly common occurrence on sailboats) led us to believe that we were much lower on fuel than we actually were. (I hope I remember to suggest to her to see if she could simply use a dipstick approach to her fuel tank. I can't on my boat, but she might be able to. I was too sick to go into the cabin, so I'm not really quite sure if her new fuel tank configuration would allow that.)

In the meantime, I was getting more and more sick. As skipper, it was Samantha's job to figure out the best way to get me to help, and trusting her to do this, I did not override her judgments. That turned out be very smart on my part.

I should state now that I also did not at any time look over her shoulder to check her calculations. Any movement made me more sick, and she was using my chart book, which suits a small cockpit better than larger charts. I was interested in protecting my chart book from my current medical state.

Samantha went below, knew immediately where her navigation aids were, and returned with dividers, hand bearing compass, parallel rulers, protractor, and two rotating wheels which she described as a "sailing slide rule." That last one is not something I'm familiar with but very curious about now. Some time when it is less likely that I would soil it rather badly, I want to get a look at it and what it can do. It wasn't covered in the coastal navigation class I took, which unfortunately emphasized ... chart plotters.
 
Using these tools while the 15 year old Sea Scout who was with us quite competently handled the boat by herself (in spite of never having single-handed before -- more about her later), Samantha was able to locate our position with remarkable precision. We know this because my phone had just enough battery left to confirm our location.

I have two observations about all of this, done when it really mattered (thanks, Samantha! You saved me from being a lot more sick than I already was.)

First, Samantha did a truly excellent job of navigating when it really counted.

Second, neither Boat US nor the Coast Guard were at first confident that she actually knew where we were. Why? Because we didn't have a chart plotter. THEY seemed to be so reliant on electronic aids that they did not believe Samantha when she reported our position using things like dividers and paper charts. They may well have had good reason for this. It is my suspicion that an awful lot of people don't know how to do it. I don't believe I could have done it as well as Samantha did (assuming I hadn't been sick).

I believe that part of what convinced the Coast Guard that they should come and get us was that over a half hour they got three reports from Samantha of our location, and that the three points reported made sense. By the way, Samantha was loathe to draw lines on charts that weren't hers, adding a new layer of complications that did not prevent her from doing the job well.

The Coast Guard found us efficiently, and something that has to be kept in mind in all of this is the nature of the typical coastal Coast Guard vessel. They are not really equipped for medical rescue. There was no stretcher or back board and it would have been a very bad idea anyway. There was no room in their little cabin for such apparatus. In the back of the boat, lying down simply was not an option. I needed all the physical strength I could manage to muster to be able to sit and hang on to that gun turret or whatever it was (it might have just been an incredibly stout stanchion for lines with a big hole drilled in the top for some other reason than a gun mount). If Samantha had delayed calling, I'm not sure I would have had that strength. I did crash somewhat later in the hospital, but that's a far better location than on a sailbot some miles off shore -- or even on the Coast Guard boat. She got me rescued in a timely way.

We knew the chart plotter wasn't going to work as we left the dock, but they can and do sometimes malfunction some distance into a trip, suddenly and unexpectedly. If I had been on a boat where no one had good coastal navigation skills, I could have ended up much more sick. No solution is perfect. Often it will be the skipper who has these skills, but what if it's the skipper who is sick? We could have just as easily gone on my boat, and I would have had no guarantee that my crew had these skills.

If that's your situation, get a backup chart plotter. I really dislike the handheld chart plotters, but they will give you latitude and longitude, which is all that's needed to get emergency help to your boat. I really do not recommend counting on your phone. You may be too far off the coast to get a signal, but in addition, the lack of sub-menus makes it much more difficult to find something as basic as latitude and longitude.

In fact, the difficulty of finding latitude and longitude in the Navionics program points to something else about the philosophical approach to the design of electronics navigation. Navionics, for instance,  focuses far more on establishing a route and using it as a track (something a modern chart plotter does fairly easily) than in just telling you where you are. I'm going to look for an app that just gives lat and long, because that's really all we needed. With rapid access to latitude and longitude, we could have confidently snaked ourselves through Mullet Key, Egmont Key, etc. At the push of a button we could have told the Coast Guard where we were.

Finally, Navionics depletes the phone battery quite rapidly. We did not have a DC charger with us (it's an easy thing to forget), and when it was dead, it was done. Using Navionics in the open Gulf we could turn it off, but near the shore you would want to leave it on.

I have seen people use Navionics on their phone quite effectively, but it has a steep learning curve, it doesn't do it nearly as well as a chart plotter, it is hard to see to program it in sunlight, and it uses a lot of battery up pretty quickly. Except in an emergency it gets a thumbs down from me.

I'll look and report on what I find regarding lat/long apps, but since I use an Android and most people seem to have Apples for smart phones, people should look on their own as well. T-Mobile, for instance (my provider), recommends that I use only T-Mobile tested apps, and my experience has suggested that this is true. While an I-Phone supposedly gives lat and long, it is also buried in the phone. The Coast Guard tried to lead Samantha through her phone to find it on her phone, apparently not trusting her navigation skills, but in Samantha's view it's the phone that failed. She never did find it and -- smartly -- asserted her status as skipper and insisted that they use the position she had plotted the old-fashioned way.

The weekend's experiences enhanced my opinion that both chart plotters and skilled use of paper charts are crucial, and not just for "serious" sailors. Going out on the water is a little dangerous, and it isn't right to abuse the system by forcing the Coast Guard to do a costly and time-consuming grid search because you didn't know how to figure out where you were.

Your Chart is Probably Out of Date--Updated

PS: I just spent the weekend with club friends in a little cove off the Manatee River. There's a very high spot shown on both paper and electronic charts that's supposed to only be 3.3' deep at mean low tide.

I had difficulty getting the anchor up, and in the process, according to my chart plotter my boat drifted all over that spot, but the chart plotter, which I checked frequently because I knew about that supposed bump, showed I never had less than 9..4' water to work in. There's another example of how wrong charts can be. Someone had told me with great confidence that this "bump" wouldn't change because there was no current in there, but of course, since it's on the south side of the river, a lot of storms will stir that water up. In any event, the bump seems to be gone. This is actually the most dramatic case of change I've come across so far.


I've shown pictures of floating buoys in a major channel in the Tampa Bay area before:

 

This photo faces east. This is Channel Marker #10 in the Sunshine Skyway Channel. You can see exposed sand beyond. Channel Markers #8 and #12 are significantly farther east than this one is. The Channel is shoaling, or filling in with loose sand, at this spot. I took this picture some months ago. Since then I've seen a sailboat aground, in the channel, north of this spot. In addition, to the south, another piling has been taken down and another floating buoy moved significantly west. The eastern edge of this channel is starting to get a bit zig-zaggy!

I ran lightly aground between markers 2 and 4 a couple of weeks ago. We had a lower than average low tide, partly influenced by the 25 mph north wind that apparently blew a fair amount of Tampa Bay's water to Venezuela. I got off fairly easily; sand that has just moved hasn't had a chance to compact yet and gives way fairly easily. I've also "skipped bottom" at other spots in the channel.

I don't know when the powers that be will get around to redredging this channel, but probably it takes a while. Meanwhile, what do I have to go by? One thing is for sure: my chart still shows both channel markers in their old places. So does my chart plotter.

Meanwhile, we've had a run of unusually low tides here. The lowest point doesn't typically go below mean low tide (except for that one very windy day), but we're not having full high tides. Since the typical distance from low to high tide around here is only two feet, when the tide only rises one foot "high tide" isn't a lot of help in very shallow places.

But the problem with charts and chart plotters lagging behind real life is more complicated than just where the channel markers are. At the southern end of the Skyway Bridge Channel, it appears that there is deeper water -- 8' - 10' -- just to the west of Channel Marker 2. So it would *appear* that one could just bypass the southern entrance by going west of it, and then enter the channel past that shoaling spot.

However, if the channel is filling in to that degree, perhaps the area to the west of it is filling in as well.

When faced with such situations, local knowledge can be a great help. Local fishermen may know, or local dockmasters, charter captains, etc. You can get on the radio and see if you can raise someone. or put someone, preferably someone with experience in shallow water, on the bow. Proceed very slowly, so if you do run aground, your boat's speed doesn't make it worse. 

For now, I'm just avoiding that patch of water at low tide. I'm not going to go through there at night by myself unless I have a full-out high tide, and even then it wouldn't be my first choice, because being aground in a narrow channel at night is not exactly an ideal situation. 

So don't trust your chart plotter 100%. Don't completely trust the routes you've plotted on it unless it's all through known deep water. Keep your eyes open, and reduce your speed at night. Keep a log of such instances so you're not left scratching your head next time, thinking, "Now where was that high spot?" You don't want it under your keel!

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A Tale of Two Sailors

“Abilities wither under faultfinding, and blossom under encouragement.”
— Donald A. Laird

The other day, I spoke with two different sailors about two different issues. Neither of them are close friends of mine.

Person A greeted me cordially and then went about his business. Later on I ran into him, and we chatted about several things. This ended with a discussion about the very clever way he has rigged his mainsail halyard to make it easier to pull, using blocks. He calls it his "geezer halyard." He showed me exactly how he made it. He made sure I got safely on and off his boat, showed me how it was all set up, and let me try the halyard myself (easy with one hand -- I hope to have an article about it shortly, because it's not only "geezers" who have bad shoulders or backs). 

Then there was Person B. I had sought out this person's advice because I respected his expertise. I did not know him well.

To my surprise, every single sentence I started got cut off in mid-stream without being finished. The conversation was immediately derailed to some thought that what I had said had triggered in his mind. The observations were always negative, and the comments always condescending.  I was there to gather information, while he was there to prove that he knew more (uh -- no contest -- could we please move on?). This person still has no idea of what I know and do not know, what I have and have not done, and, I am quite certain, thinks he knows a great deal more about me as a sailor than he actually does. In fact the interchange ended with some really bad advice, that "with the kind of sailing I do" (something we didn't discuss) I "don't even need a chart plotter. Just use your cell phone."

Really? I should cross Florida Bay using a cell phone to navigate? I don't think so! There really isn't any cell phone reception out there. But we didn't discuss my intention to sail to the Tortugas one day.

So what was going on?

Well, both people wanted validation for their knowledge and expertise. Don't we all? One person has my renewed respect. He talked to me in a friendly and encouraging way. He has in fact done this since I first started sailing. We have never socialized outside the club, but he has been unfailingly supportive. He's never blown smoke up my skirt, and I came out of this exchange feeling validated as well. This very experienced man thought I was worth his finite time. He was patient and waited to see whether I understood. We both participated in that discussion and demonstration. Hopefully all of you will soon benefit from his generosity of spirit and have great pictures of his "geezer halyard," too. He got his validation from helping out someone with less experience than him.

In my opinion, the second person was so interested in getting validation that he lost track of the conversation. I would say something and he would actually say virtually the same thing not five minutes later, presenting it as something he was sure I didn't know. For instance, I pointed out that celestial navigation will not be a lot of use if caught in a hurricane. Not two minutes later he explained to me that one can't use celestial navigation in a hurricane. He simply was not hearing anything I had to say. He has walked away from our "conversation" remembering only what he thought up, because the only reason he listened to me was to find a new tangent to redirect the conversation to. Those new conversations always included assumptions (big assumptions) that I didn't know very basic things, followed by condescension. He got his validation by looking down his nose at someone else.

I'm not passing that cell phone "advice" on to you. Do NOT rely on a cell phone for navigation. It can be a backup, but you can't count on getting a signal. For instance, I know as a fact that I will get no cell phone signal off the coast of Venice, but the entrance into Venice Inlet is tricky and you need accurate information, and you may need it rapidly.

And there's the "smoke up your skirt" test: I don't know another sailor who would recommend a cell phone over a chart plotter. But it was a great put-down. The more important the advice you're being given is, the more necessary it is to double-check it. 

Standard disclaimer applies: I'm not disparaging charts here, and I encourage people to use both charts and chart plotters. I encourage people to do things like put Navionics on their cell phones. Just don't *count* on it to be there when you have to make a five-second decision about where the sand bar is, because that might be exactly when you "drop carrier."

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My Current Storm Strategy

"Climbing (sailing) is like fun, only different."
     Tom Pattey, Scottish ice climber

When I first started sailing, I had a storm strategy. That’s good; everyone who sails should have a storm strategy.

My first plan (just avoid storms) was completely unrealistic (in two ways). That’s bad. See my three-part entry, “Out of the Bathtub!” That wasn’t even a storm – just more wind and waves than typical. We were in 5’ waves, and I was completely unprepared. I noticed on the news tonight that 8’ waves are predicted on the Gulf tonight. There’s nothing in the visible observation of local weather to suggest this. Locally, it’s cloudy with occasional light drizzle. However, to the north of us a cold front is moving south. I’m guessing now, but wondering if maybe north of here, weather is just pushing waves southward. The weather report didn’t give wave direction, and I haven’t checked yet.

It doesn’t really matter, because both weather and weather-related events, such as waves, can’t always be predicted (see my entry “Storm!”, where a significant storm seemingly came out of nowhere.)

In my first wind-and-wave event, I was woefully unprepared, particularly because of my reefing system that was so inadequate and dangerous that it couldn’t be safely used. That led to a cascade of ever-worsening events.

My second storm strategy was “just drop all the sails and motor.” That is also a significantly flawed strategy in my opinion.

First, my first sailboat had an outboard engine. In the waves we had it would have been impossible to run the engine because the engine would have kept coming out of the water, denying it cooling. On my next boat, the engine proved to be completely undependable. Now, with a dependable engine, I need to protect it. I don’t want to operate it if the boat heels more than 10º, because after 10º the oil pump cannot adequately pump oil through the engine.

The reality is that a sail plan in a really significant storm can’t and won’t be that simple, and it partly depends on your individual boat as well as your experience, and your experience with that boat.

For instance, my boat is particularly sensitive to being in balance -- that is, having the size of the headsail and the size of the mainsail matched so they work well together without allowing the boat to become overpowered (too much sail up for the conditions). I discussed this today with someone who has the same boat I do but vastly more experience, and he agrees.

For my boat, the hull shape is important. Its fat stern tapering to skinny bow makes the boat “bow tender.” In other words, the bow is particularly sensitive to wind and waves compared to some other boats.

Now, my friend already knows what I’m going to mention next. I’m still sorting it out because I haven’t been in a storm in this boat in some time and have learned a lot about how she handles since then. The first step for me would be to see where the coast is. If it’s close (I’m largely a coastal cruiser), getting away from or staying away from the coast has to be a top priority. You have to look at the chart closely and account for all possible obstacles, not just the shore itself.

The next concern will be how the hull goes through the biggest and most common waves. Unfortunately, waves don’t march like well-disciplined little sailors. While most may come from one direction, there will be contrary ones, and size will also vary. They are the concern of the helmsman. Right now, the current trend should be studied. In shallower water, the waves will be more confused and harder or impossible to predict. But you’re going to get out of shallow water as fast as you can.  :)

Once a tentative point of sail has been chosen (based on conditions, not destination – destination sailing is over for now) – it’s time to set the sails to help the boat through those waves as smoothly as possible. Wind direction has to be considered. You should have a good idea of where to put your sails, but try tweaking them for best result. “Harden them up” – that is, do things to take as much belly out as possible, such as tightening your outhaul (pulls the sail back toward the end of the boom) and the leech line (tightens the leech of the sail and helps take curve out of it). Why do that? Because a curved sail catches more wind than a flat one.

If you have a traveler, check its position. You probably won’t want to be on a close reach (often called “beating” with good reason), but you probably don’t want to be broadside to the winds either. Someplace in between will probably be best for the winds, but it may have to be a compromise between the wind and the hull, as the waves may not be from the same direction as the wind. You may want your traveler halfway between center and the end of the lee side. That gives you the option of using the traveler to quickly spill wind out of the mainsail in a gust. Simply release the upwind traveler line and let the traveler move all the way to the end. The sail will instantly become less efficient, and that’s exactly what you want.

Tweak your headsail as well. If this sail has height to it (my ATN Gale Sail is fairly short), you might want to use the position of the sheet leads to “twist” the top of the headsail. While sometimes undesirable, it is one strategy for depowering the headsail, because wind will spill ineffectively out of that twisted top.

The headsail can also be hardened up, by pulling the working sheet as tightly as possible. Many headsails have leech lines. Try to get forward to tighten that before any significant wind hits your boat.

All of this is a matter of judgment and balance. You will have your hardest time with it in your first storm, because you will have to test everything as you go, and make a number of adjustments. In subsequent storms you’ll know much more about what works on your boat. 

Is this my final storm strategy? Of course not.

Should you copy it? Don't be silly -- I haven't tried it yet. I'm absolutely certain it won't all work equally well. I have done all these things, but not all at the same time in a storm.

I'll post when I've done that. It's Florida. Inevitably, it will be tested. 

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Make Your Own Nautical Lamp

"If a man [or a woman] is to be obsessed by
something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything,
perhaps a bit better than most." 
 E. B. White

One of the more complicated lifestyle things to manage on a sailboat is interior lighting. My boat has old incandescent dome lights. The bulbs themselves give off a yellow-toned light, and the plastic domes over them have yellowed as well. They’re not very bright, and they turn on and off by twisting the dome. Since they’re old, they can be hard to turn on and off. Two just don’t work any more.

I’m exploring what to replace them with, but meanwhile I was faced with the reality that I needed better lighting now. So I tried dome-style work lights. I put an LED bulb in one and a fluorescent bulb in the other. I clipped them to the overhead handholds.

They both worked well, except that the clips holding them up kept slipping. Every time they fell, the domes dented more until they both looked like they’d been run over by trucks. They dented if they fell on to a settee cushion. I think they dented if someone sneezed. They had been ugly to start with and now they were truly awful.

So then I remembered old charts I had for another project. I had much more chart paper than I would need for that project.

Here’s the final result:

By using a slightly larger dome with protective bales, as well as the extra strength given by the paper wrapped around the aluminum, so far they have not dented at all. The bales improve the rigidity of the dome remarkably.

To make these yourself, here’s what you’ll need:

     * Aluminum work light:

         I recommend a larger one with two bales that help protect the aluminum from denting.

     * Old charts, enough to cover both sides of the work light (one large chart was more than enough to cover two work lights) 

     * Sand paper (I used 150 grit)

     * Elmer’s glue

     * Water

     * Cup or glass

     * Plate or wide bowl

     * Scissors

     * X-acto knife with sharp blade

     * Damp paper towels

     * Brush

    Time needed: about two hours

First, set the bales aside and sand the aluminum cover very lightly, inside and out. Wipe the aluminum down with a damp paper towel.

Look at your collection of old charts, or ask friends. I had no trouble finding some.

First, pick a circular section about 5” in diameter that looks interesting. Cut a small area in the center, and TEAR the outsize edge of your circle. The circle doesn’t have to be perfect and will look better if it is not. Torn edges will absorb the glue better, and layer under other pieces of chart more seamlessly.

Lay that circle in the center of the inside of the work light. It will not lie flat yet. Cut or tear from the outside edge toward the center in several places until this piece of chart does lie nearly flat. (You may find that tearing all the way from the outside edge to the center in several places may work best.) This is the tightest curve, except for the lip, that you will have to cover.

First piece, after it’s been torn and fitted, glued on

Mix the glue in a plate or wide, shallow bowl, about 50/50 with water. Soak your piece of chart in the glue/water mixture for at least 30 seconds, until the chart becomes softer and more pliable. This takes a little while because most charts are lightly coated to make them slightly water-resistant, but they will soak up the glue and water.

Lay your first piece of chart so that the center hole lines up with the bulb socket. You may need to trim that more. Try to trim it to the edge as well as possible. It does not have to be absolutely perfect as the bulb will block that edge. If you go too far, don’t worry – you can always patch it.

Chart paper, soaking in glue and water before application

As you look at your maps, study them and consider what sections you want to use. I found that my chart had notes written in on them and I wanted to make sure those pencil notes went on the lamp and that they were not later covered up by other pieces of chart. Likewise, I felt that large expanses of water were boring, and used the most detailed parts of the chart (one large chart covered two large floodlights with pieces left over). The chart I used is of the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

One several areas on this chart with notes made by the old owner. I made sure these sections
went on to the lamp. Also note the quality of the torn edge. It helps with glue absorption
and results in a smoother surface on the finished lamp.

 
Continue to tear, not cut, your chart pieces, roughly, to fit but also overlap. Consider what is already on the lamp that you want to leave exposed, such as the penciled notes on the piece of chart above.

Don’t try to line the chart pieces up so the chart can be read. You can’t force a flat surface to cover a curved one without considerable distortion. When I look at my finished lamps, they give the impression of a continuous chart, not what it really is -- bits and pieces that have been crazy-quilted together.

As you tear your chart pieces, you will have to continue to break up larger pieces so you can overlap them slightly, so they can follow the curves of the lamp. Test your pieces by laying them where you want them to be placed so you can make any needed adjustments. See the next two pictures:

Example of a piece I tore to cover an oddly-shaped bare space

 

If you find pieces that aren’t laying flat, work those spots gently with your fingertips. You’ll find the chart paper softens more and that you can mold it to the curves. You may have to tear  a slit in a piece to get it to lie flat as well. You can also apply more glue/water with a brush after you've placed the piece on the aluminum.

 The piece previously shown, torn again to cover the inside

curve of the lamp without bubbling or buckling.

Have a cup of water handy deep enough to hold your brush in case you have to leave the project, so your brush does not dry out and get hard.

As  you approach the edge of the work light, experiment with several shapes and sizes before covering the rim. This is the place where the chart paper is most likely to become “lumpy.” Soak those pieces well, and go back and check the edge periodically as you continue to work on the lamp, as creases and bumps can appear several minutes after the chart paper appears to have been laid flat. Add more water or glue and water to those pieces with the brush as necessary. Pieces that wrap around the edge will be more likely to buckle and will require periodic checking for lifted edges.

The inside of the lamp is now nearly covered

Continue around the outside of the work light as you did the inside.

When the work light is completely covered, dip the brush in the glue/water mixture and coat the entire lamp with the glue/water. Check the lamp carefully for small places where aluminum is still exposed.

After you’re sure you have covered every bit of aluminum, put the bales on. They will poke through the paper easily. If you can’t see where the holes are, hold the work light up to a light and you’ll be able to spot them. Put the bales on before the pieces of chart paper dry.

After the lamp has dried for 24 hours, check it once more for small exposed spots of aluminum. Some of the paper may have shrunk as it dried and fooled you. When completely covered with all pieces completely dry, take the bales off and spray several coats of sealant on the lamp, inside and out. You don’t want it damaged by a splash of water.

Don’t use incandescent bulbs in this lamp. Of the two bulbs I have tried, I prefer the LED bulb over the fluorescent one for this purpose. The LED has a larger diameter (the bulb shown cost $39 about a year ago, but it was worth it, and they last a very long time), and it gives off an even, bright but soft light.

If you want, you can spray paint the remaining exposed aluminum – the large spring clip used to position the lamp, as well as the bales. For my lamps, I think off-white would look best.

Another view of finished lamp, with LED bulb

I have had a few problems with these lights. First, the clip mechanism often works its way loose. Put Lock-Tite on the screw.

Second, although the smaller work light dented if you sneezed without the protective bales, it also had an on-off switch. The ones I covered do not have that, something I did not notice until I had covered them both. I plan on putting rolling switches in the cords.

Third, the clips themselves tend to slip off the best place for me to hang them from, the overhead hand-holds. I solved this problem by putting a zip-tie through the two sides of the clip above the handhold. I don’t pull it completely tight so I can move the lamp if I need to. It’s not ideal, but right now I have these lights in temporary placements. Once I have replaced the dome lights I’ll be able to judge better where I want these lights placed. I may install dedicated hardware for them, and once they have a permanent place, they can be unobtrusively attached. I may aim them at the ceiling at either end of the cabin for diffused light.

I have more old charts left, and I have another project in mind, but that probably won’t be posted for a little while. Meanwhile, look around you. If you have a table lamp on your boat, chart paper can update its look and make that table lamp look more as if it belongs on a boat. If the surface of your table is in rough shape, you can sand it, apply charts with varnish, and create an interesting table top. Use multiple coats of varnish for things like table tops.

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Celestial Navigation

     Or, the stars may not actually hold your future

I just read online about a Great Schism in sailing. The publication Ocean Navigator reports that the Coast Guard Academy will continue to teach celestial navigation -- navigation using the stars, the moon and the sun. Amazingly, the  the U. S. Naval Academy will be moving in a completely opposite direction, They will rely totally on GPS technology. Presumably they will have redundancies built in -- more than one chart plotter, and probably more than one brand of chart plotter.

Those sticking to celestial navigation will have a little more difficult time with redundancy strategy. The obvious strategy there is to have two teams performing their calculations completely separately. However, that won't solve the problem of extended, heavy cloud cover -- for instance, in a hurricane, where it might be extremely important to know exactly where the ship is, which would identify which quadrant of the storm the ship is in. The four quadrants of a significant hurricane vary significantly in strength, so obviously, being in a weaker quadrant can be a valuable strategy.

But practically speaking, for the newer sailor, they need to know accurately where they are. We can talk about dead reckoning -- and it can work -- but only an idiot would rely solely on dead reckoning when it's a new skill. Likewise, using sextants involves using multiple charts along with taking accurate positional readings for celestial bodies, on a pitching boat. It isn't going to be terribly reliable for a newer sailor.

Celestial navigation is difficult and expensive to learn. There's no doubt it works, when you can be sure of the time and actually see celestial bodies -- but it's not fast, and there are meteorological limits.

We've talked about this chart plotter debate before, and I'm going to come back to my earlier suggestion that you use a chart plotter -- actually two. If you have a hand-held backup chart plotter and your electrical system goes out, you will still have very accurate access to your latitude and longitude.

Mark those readings on your chart at an accurate time table -- say, every half hour. Then you'll have a visual representation. You can easily compare this to your efforts at both dead reckoning and celestial navigation. 

I'm not saying that celestial navigation should go the way of the dinosaurs. Clearly, many find real value in it. I'm also not saying that chart plotters are for lazy people. But in fact, a chart plotter can you assist you as you learn both celestial navigation and dead reckoning by double-checking the conclusions you drew from the older methods. And in an emergency, let's face it -- for most people a chart plotter is going to give you information more rapidly and more simply.

Chart plotters are not the tools of the devil, and those who use celestial navigation aren't inherently superior to others. It's just a matter of interest for the great majority. So be tolerant -- "The farmer and the cowman should be friends!"

Bottom line: don't let those who know celestial navigation try to lord it over you because you don't know it yet. You're a newer sailor, and that's NOT a moral flaw. Maybe excessively harsh judgment of those coming behind one IS a serious character flaw. NO ONE PERSON represents the minimum standard to which all must line up -- especially when that status of "I'm the best and the rest of you are unworthy" is self-appointed.

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