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Old 05-11-2015, 05:25 PM   #88
BandB
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City: Fort Lauderdale. Florida, USA
Join Date: Jan 2014
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Marin View Post
The reality is that navigating a boat from A to B is about the simplest, easiest process on the planet. You are here, you want to go there, you figure out a course from here to there on which you will hit nothing but water, you figure out the headings to hold on each leg, you get current (and wind if it's relevant) information and dial it in with your speed to get the heading that has to held on each leg or portion of each leg if it's a long one that will be influenced by several currents along the way, and that's it. Maintain the headings and the speed and you're done. You get to Point B every time. One reason it's so dead easy is that the stuff you're navigating around doesn't move while you're navigating around it.
That is so true for many of us. For us, it was all easy. We've had several friends who have decided to learn and just being with us, given the chance to practice a little, and soon they had their confidence and their own boats. Three of them are currently working toward licenses, just because they want to.

It's simple math to some of us. But that doesn't mean we're smarter than those who struggle with it, we may just be smarter in that area. For some people coming from varied backgrounds, the concepts are difficult to grasp. There's also a difference between those of us who have been around boats all their lives versus those who decide later in life or even at retirement it would be nice. So I'm not going to declare it's the simplest, easiest process on the planet, because it isn't for everyone. I do admire those for whom it is difficult but who work very hard to learn and develop the skills.

Now Astronomy was difficult for me in college and Celestial Navigation is. It's taken me a lot of effort to see the patterns in the sky. My wife thought it was the simplest thing in the world and she'd never taken Astronomy. She'd look at me like "Why can't you see something so obvious. Poor baby."
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