Three days on the river

 The recent three days,  Friday,  Saturday and Sunday,  on the River Great Ouse,  have been astonishingly hot.   The hottest heatwave in May for (I believe) 60 years.

Three very different boats,  one out of Jones Boatyard,  St Ives;  two out of Buckden Marina.

One boat had a straightforward outboard motor;  no complications,  no frills;  very smart and clean;  very tidy accommodation.   A trifle skittish;  we needed to watch the wind carefully especially into a narrow mooring or lock entrance.

Another had a single inboard petrol engine and a bow thruster;  totally manoeuvrable,  very controllable.   I worry a little about petrol engines because they can be tempramental.   On the river we can’t operate American sports boats at their design speeds;  cruising at tickover means that the spark plugs can foul.   A beautifully kept boat with lovely accommodation.

The third boat had twin diesel engines and again,  spacious and tidy accommodation.   When the engine controls are properly adjusted,  as these were,  twin diesels are a pleasure to operate.

Three boats,  three lovely couples.

A father and son with a brand new (to them) boat.

A husband and wife on a new adventure.

Two friends looking forward to a relaxing time on the river.

The beginning of every new training day is exciting.

The early morning drive to the marina reminds me of commuting to work (which I usually enjoyed).   The A14 is often busy;  but not over this Bank Holiday weekend.   Most of the drivers are professional and we all know what we’re doing.   Except,  of course,  the occasional lunatic hell-bent on killing all of us.

The marina staff are very pleasant and welcoming.

Have you tried the coffee at Jones Boatyard?

Both marinas sell boats.   Every new boat owner is given a demonstration and a few recommendations.   They are also given my card and many of them book a day with me.

This is where I become a little apprehensive.

What will the people be like?   What will the boat be like?

My only contact so far has been an e-mail or,  if I’m lucky,  a phone call and a follow-up e-mail.   It’s in the nature of things that new boaters don’t know what to ask for or what to expect,  so I have a list of questions and a list of things they need on the boat before we go out.

What do they need?

Lunch,  water,  heads,  fenders,  boathook,  lifejackets,  warps,  springs.

At StIves we meet at the chandlery (I mentioned the coffee).   Elsewhere I have a gate key or the gate number so we meet at the boat.

They are more apprehensive than I am.

They are about to hand over a chunk of money to an unknown old man.   He has professional qualifications and a naval or maritime background;  but is he smiley or surly?   Is he loquacious or taciturn?   Is he didactic or listening?   Is he patronising or pleasant?   Is he patient or not?

On the other hand they’ve already handed over one hundred times as much for a sleek motorised aquatic conveyance that’s quite daunting.   Maybe this old man can make today less daunting,  easier to handle,  more understandable.

As it turned out,  all three couples were charming and ready to learn.   Trust and rapport was built quickly,  in one case within seconds,  in another within the hour.

Three glorious,  exhausting,  hot days.

Headings and bearings

 I’ve been teaching maritime navigation for a few years and I’ve noticed that some of my students have trouble with headings and bearings

I think it’s simple.

A heading is the direction in which you’re pointing the boat.

A bearing is the direction of something you’re looking at (like a lighthouse or a buoy).

But it’s become clear to me that not all my candidates think it’s simple.

And now I think I know why.

I’ve been watching a YouTube channel featuring Wayne of the Map Reading Company.   Wayne teaches land navigation;  how to get from A to B across country.   He uses a map and a compass (On the boats we use a map (which we call a chart) and two compasses;  but I’ll come back to that.).   He uses the map to find the direction from where he is to where he wants to be.   Then he uses the compass to take a bearing on the object that he wants to get to.   Then he follows that bearing until he gets there.

In Wayne’s world,  on land,  his bearing and his heading are the same.

In my world,  on the sea,  I can take a bearing on the buoy I want to reach.   If I follow that bearing I discover that my world,  the sea,  is moving sideways,  with the tide.   If I stay on the bearing I’ll end up a long way down-tide of the buoy I wanted.

To get to the buoy I need to point my boat a little (sometimes a lot) into the tide to stay on the bearing.

My heading is different (sometimes very different) from my bearing.

Wayne’s world,  on land,  doesn’t (usually) move sideways under him.   He takes a bearing and points himself in that direction;  it doesn’t occur to him to use a separate word (heading) for the way he’s pointing,  they are the same.

I learned land navigation with the Boy Scouts in Wales,  and then in more detail with another group of people.

Many of my students have done the same or similar.

We followed bearings to get to our destinations.

We used a compass to see,  and follow,  the bearing.

On the boat we take a bearing (the direction of the feature we need to reach) with a bearing compass.   This is often (erroneously) known as a “hand-bearing compass” (it’s actually a ‘hand-held bearing compass’ to distinguish it from the fixed bearing compasses used on larger vessels).

We then calculate a triangle of vectors (easier than it sounds!) where the vectors are direction & speed of the track we want to follow (which is,  of course,  the bearing to the feature),  direction & speed of the tide and,  thirdly,  direction & speed of the boat (this third direction being the heading we need in order to follow the bearing).

The heading of the boat is derived from the steering compass,  which is usually fixed.   In a tideway,  or a strong wind,  the heading is never the same as the bearing

Nowadays of course,  global navigation satellite systems (of which GPS is one) have made knowing where we are and the bearing to our destination much simpler.   But I would argue that it’s made calculating our best heading across a tide quite a bit harder.