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Overview
Find Your Way at Sea, No Matter What
“Inherently interesting and fun to read . . . provides the clearest understanding of general navigation principles we've seen yet.”—BoatU.S.
“Thorough and authoritative.”—Sea Kayaker
“A definitive work of instant appeal to seamen of all levels of experience.”—The Navigation Foundation
Every sailor knows that instruments can fail. Things get wet, break, fall overboard. Whether you’re safe on your boat or drifting in a life raft, let David Burch show you how to find your way no matter what navigational equipment you have. Often relying on common materials like a small stick, a plastic bottle, even a pair of sunglasses, Burch explains how to make use of all available means—from the ancient skills of Polynesian navigators to the contrails of airliners overhead—to calculate speed, direction, latitude, and longitude and to perform all aspects of piloting and dead reckoning.
Learn how to
- Steer by sun, stars, wind, and swells
- Estimate current and leeway
- Improvise your own knotmeter or plumb-bob sextant
- Find the sun in a fogbank
- Estimate latitude with a plate and a knotted string
- And more vital information
Synopsis
Find Your Way at Sea, No Matter What
“Inherently interesting and fun to read . . . provides the clearest understanding of general navigation principles we've seen yet.”—BoatU.S.
“Thorough and authoritative.”—Sea Kayaker
“A definitive work of instant appeal to seamen of all levels of experience.”—The Navigation Foundation
Every sailor knows that instruments can fail. Things get wet, break, fall overboard. Whether you’re safe on your boat or drifting in a life raft, let David Burch show you how to find your way no matter what navigational equipment you have. Often relying on common materials like a small stick, a plastic bottle, even a pair of sunglasses, Burch explains how to make use of all available means—from the ancient skills of Polynesian navigators to the contrails of airliners overhead—to calculate speed, direction, latitude, and longitude and to perform all aspects of piloting and dead reckoning.
Learn how to
- Steer by sun, stars, wind, and swells
- Estimate current and leeway
- Improvise your own knotmeter or plumb-bob sextant
- Find the sun in a fogbank
- Estimate latitude with a plate and a knotted string
- And more vital information
David Burch is the founder and president of the Starpath School of Navigation (www.starpath.com) and the author of nine books on navigation, including Radar for Mariners and Fundamentals of Kayak Navigation. His articles appear in Cruising World, Ocean Navigator, Sailing, Sea Kayaker, and elsewhere. A past Fulbright Scholar with a Ph.D. in physics, Burch has more than 70,000 miles of ocean sailing experience, ranging from the Arctic to Tahiti. He has sailed across the Pacific twelve times, three times navigating winning yachts in the Victoria - Maui Yacht Race. He has received the Institute of Navigation’s Superior Achievement Award for outstanding performance as a practicing navigator.
David Burch is a renowned expert on navigation with several
successful titles and a high profile in the boating community. The founder
and director of the Starpath School of Navigation, Burch holds a Ph.D. in
physics and has more than 60,000 miles of ocean sailing experience.