50 Ways to Improve Your Navigation

There are many situations where you come from seaward to make a landfall. It could be after a long open sea passage, it could be coming into an anchorage for lunch or it could be making for harbour. These will be the times when you move from deep water into the shallows and where, if you keep going blindly on, you will hit something or run aground. With GPS operating and the depth sounder running, you should be in control of the situation and the landfall will go according to plan. However, poor visibility or uncertain chart information can raise the risk levels of making a landfall, and things can get critical very quickly.
One way to reduce the risk is to choose the point of landfall carefully. Even if it's not your final destination, you can make sure you avoid any off-lying dangers and find a point where a gradual shoaling will give you early warning of arrival.
Another way to reduce the risk is to vary the angle of approach. If you are heading straight in towards land and the unexpected happens, you have two options about which way to turn to get out of danger: left or right. There will probably be little or no indication about which is the best way to turn when the sounder shows sudden shoaling or other dangers loom up ahead. But whichever way you decide to go, you will need to make a 180 degree turn before you start to head towards safety.
You can take a lot of the guesswork out of the situation if you approach the land at an angle of around 45 degrees. Not only will this slow down your approach into the shallows and give you more warning of hazards, it will also remove the dilemma about which way to turn if you encounter a problem. If you adopt this angled approach not only is there only one logical way to turn but the turn itself will also be less acute, and you will be able to resolve the situation a lot quicker and a lot more safely.

PREPARATION
1 Making a landfall - angle of approach
2 Deviating to shorten the distance between marks
3 The longer route can be the quickest
4 The effect of wind on the tides
5 Judging sea conditions
6 Offsetting the course in order to be sure
7 Safety margins
8 Fuel and navigation
VISUAL NAVIGATION
9 Adding up the clues
10 Position fixing from sea conditions
11 Estimating your position
12 Transit bearings
13 Steering bias
14 Magnetic or true?
15 Second stage navigation
16 Conspicuous marks
17 Local knowledge
PAPER CHARTS
18 Checking the plotted course
19 Customising the charts
20 Using position lines
21 Looking at alternatives
DEPTH, TIDES AND CURRENTS
22 Using depth when making a landfall
23 Depth warnings and shoals
24 Depth and distance off
25 The effect of depth on sea conditions
26 Taking short cuts
ELECTRONIC CHARTS
27 Distance on the electronic chart
28 Getting the scale right
29 GPS accuracy
30 Knowing where you are
31 Waypoint selection and use
32 When your GPS goes down
RADAR FOR NAVIGATION
33 How accurate is the radar?
34 Rounding a headland on radar
35 Radar overlays
36 What the radar cannot see
COLLISION AVOIDANCE
37 Change of bearing
38 Which radar scale to use
39 Lost in the clutter
40 Avoiding the big ships
41 See and be seen
NIGHT AND FOG NAVIGATION
42 Running on autopilot
43 Speed in the fog
44 Reflections and visibility
45 Finding a buoy in fog
HARBOUR NAVIGATION
46 Assessing harbour entrances
47 Finding an anchorage
48 Finding a harbour entrance
49 Electronic charts for harbour navigation
50 Entering a harbour at night