Nautical Miles Help

I've found it to be a place where the novice, the expert and everything in between come to teach and learn. Grow a thick skin though. Welcome.

There are several ways to skin a cat figuratively; using a units per hour gallons/pounds etc at a particular power setting. Say 45 gallons per hour at 1600RPM for a 16 Kt hull speed is a rather accurate way to estimate fuel consumption. Currents, weather and drift will all have an effect on your actual distance traveled and could affect your range adversely. Planing for an average current condition and weather will get you a better idea but it is still an educated guess. Like winds aloft in flying, you hear the advertised numbers and find it to be far worse than expected.

Everyone starts with their first steps, if you don't understand a term or concept ask for an explanation. The best way to learn is to understand the relationship of the various components of navigation, weather and, boat performance. This is not like driving a car where the wheels are providing constant traction on known road surfaces, currents are like winds in the atmosphere, the heading you take may not be directly in line with the course and your speed will be affected by these as well. Clear as mud?

Steve

One minute of lattitude = 1 nautical mile, not one degree. one degree = 60 NM
I second the recommendation on activecaptain.com , very good site and even has fairly recent reports on fuel prices at specific marinas.
You can also get free trip planning software from many sources.

Hi,

The error posted previously was well spotted, I had to trawl back through the previous posts to see what had been posted to fully understand why you opened with that line.

It should also be pointed out that one degree measured on a chart near the equator will not be the same when the dividers are swapped to another chart of the same scale but covering a higher latitude without being adjusted for the variance on the chart at the latitude you are measuring- always reset your dividers for the local section of the chart you are working on.

This probably doesn't matter for the short journeys the original poster is planning on making but it can make a difference when doing longer voyage planning the old fashioned way.

Please refer to post #10

Right, by the time I got to it a lot of other posts flew in.
Marmot, you poked just to see if anybody got it. not too many.

Yeah, I kind of shuddered a bit that no one even mentioned it. Especially after NYCAP got in the dig about this forum requiring a high degree of accuracy to avoid being poked with a sharp stick.

Maybe that's why some of those short trips seem to take so long.

Hi,

I had one of those today but it as a long way from the sea.

Two sections of road works totalling 37km one 20 and the next 17 with about 5 km in between. Both scheduled to be complete in May 2012 so I will be driving through them a number of times before they are done.