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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: Variation and Declination
A compass needle seldom points directly to the north pole, because Earth’s magnetic fields pull the compass needle towards what is known as magnetic north. Because the angle between true north, the direction from you towards the north pole, and magnetic north varies from place to place, we must account for that variation when navigating. This difference is known as declination. It’s different from Magnetic Deviation, which is a local magnetic field creating an error. The terms variation and declination refer to the same feature. On a map refer to it as declination. On a chart refer to it as variation. Magnetic declination, also called variation, is the difference between…
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Map Reading and Navigation
You should learn not only to use a compass, but also good map reading before you venture into the wilds of the northern woods or the wilds of the woods anywhere.
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