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Canoe and Kayak Navigation Articles
Over the past few years, I’ve written articles about both canoe navigation and kayak navigation. I based the articles on the navigation classes I teach with the premise that navigation shouldn’t be confusing, and it isn’t confusing once you understand the basics. To help people learn during my classes, I concentrate on the results instead of the terminology. I think it’s more important that a paddler can take a bearing with a compass, follow that bearing or plot a course than know what the difference between the terms bearing, heading and course. These articles reflect that approach. If you have a website or blog, please, feel free to link back…
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Navigation: How to Use a Compass
When paddling, you use a compass to determine or identify courses, bearings and headings. Because the deck of a kayak or the workstation in a canoe is small, limiting the number of instruments used for navigation speeds up the process and reduces the chance of losing an item overboard. A baseplate compass combines a protractor with a bearing compass, and it fits inside a lifevest. Learning how to use one simplifies the process of navigation. Parts of a Compass Index line: Read the bearing in degrees at this line. In the images, the index line read 43 degrees. Direction of travel arrow: This points towards the bearing. Use the arrow…
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