| Piloting: This just requires you to
have a map, find your place on it, and then check off the landmarks you
pass. This is mostly the way I travel in the boundary waters . It
can be done by kayakers if they are in the sight of land. Don't forget to
look behind you for help in seeing landmarks to guide you back home. Setting a bearing: Plot the angle and distance with a compass and map - then add a deliberate error to the left or right so when you arive, you know the point is to one side or the other and you don't have to look both ways. I use this sometmes when in large lakes to find a takeout or portage or other point of interest when I plan to cut across the lake, rather than finding a shore line. This can be done for canoing but if kayakers are on water with winds, or current, they will have to do a little more to plot a course corrected for drift. Using a GPS - they are great and give you your exact location, and will plot a course for you and tell you your speed, but depending just on the GPS, is dangerous since they can fail. You also need to know how to navigate with a map and have a map and compass as a backup. Links for Basic Navigation for all wilderness travel Wilderness Navigation http://www.discoverjasper.com/RMHiking/navigat.htm Kayak Navigation - Natural Ranges and Drift. A site with several pieces on navigaton. |
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| Get the book: Fundamentals of Kayak Navigation by David Burch Paperback, 6" x 9", 340 pages, many illustrations, published by Globe Piquot Press, third edition, 1999.
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by Marilyn B. Kircus.
Last modified on June 19, 2003
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