Med Mooring

The thought of squeezing in between two boats with nothing but your fenders to protect the topsides of all boats involved is rather painful. What makes it worse is the thought that you are backing up to a stone wall that will destroy your boat if you get too close!

No finger piers, no leeway, and no help from anyone until you are securely in your slip.

Sounds wonderful! No wonder they haven’t changed how they tie up in marinas in the Mediterranean for thousands of years!

Thankfully, this is the only place I have encountered this method of docking and just outside the Mediterranean, they don’t do it this way.

My first encounter with the procedure was in a marina in Spain, just inside the Mediterranean. I was given a slip that was 8cm (3.1 inches) wider than my boat (literally 8cm of leeway). Maddie, my wife, wanted us to tie up stern too so it would be easier to get on and off the boat, but this meant I had to reverse in a straight line with a full keel boat that has impressive prop walk; oh, and no bow thruster!

Our electric motor had the power to safely maneuver us into the slip but it was tricky! This is how I did it.

First: I accepted the fact that I wasn’t going to be able to do this. There is no way I can back up in a straight line, so I made preparations for docking in a different way.

Second: I waited for the wind to be completely calm (thankfully this marina is in a place with no tide and no current).

As we approached, I jumped off our boat and climbed onto our neighbor with the spring line. Maddie stood on the stern and as soon as we were close enough she tossed the stern line to someone on shore. They pulled us in while I fended off and pulled us in at the same time to the boat next to us. Once in position, we then attached the bow mooring line which runs into the water ahead of the slip to tie us up and keep us from sliding back into the wall.

When we go to leave, we will simply untie and motor out of there with our little electric motor, but until then we are safely tucked away Med Moor Style!

When you encounter this type of docking, just remember to wait for calm conditions and take it slow. Know which way you walk and plan ahead for that so that you don’t end up walking your boat into someone else’s topsides!

Compass Light

A compass is a wonderful tool that revolutionized travel across water. Out at sea in the middle of the ocean, there are no landmarks to guide you. Steering a straight line is remarkably difficult to do, and maintaining a course is practically impossible! A compass works on the simple principle that the Earth has a magnetosphere and the compass is merely a magnet suspended in an oil bath and allowed to orient itself with the magnetic field of the Earth itself. The pretty card that tells you North, South, East, and West is just a cheap card stuck to the magnet to make it look more impressive! The truth relies on the fact that magnetism guides us across the oceans of the world!

While we are talking about magnetism, I find it important to say that we do not have a light in our compass for use at night and this was a conscious decision that we made before we left to go cruising.

Magnetism is a phenomenon that can be created with permanent magnets and also by electromagnets. The mere act of running an electrical current down a wire will produce a, albeit very small, electromagnetic field. Why would you wan’t to put a magnet next to your compass?

Yes, compasses that have lights are shielded to protect them from this influence, making it safe to have a light in your compass so that you can read it while on watch at night.

By day, we can see the compass clearly and we look at it from time to time. The sun illuminates everything and we are sailing along without any issues. This doesn’t mean that we are glued to the compass. When the sun is shining and we can see the compass, we only look at it every few hours to make sure we are still on course.

Being a sailboat, the sails are powering the boat at all times. This means that our direction of travel is not our ideal course but instead the angle to the wind that our sails are set to. We rarely steer the boat by hand as our wind steering does all of this for us. If the wind shifts, the wind steering will alter course to keep the sails to the prescribed wind angle and this means that the sails are always perfectly trimmed, even if the wind shifts.

Wind shifts are why we check the compass. If the wind shifts, we are going to start sailing on a new course and therefore need to adjust our angle to the wind to sail to the desired course. This doesn’t happen every few minutes, instead it happens every few hours, and that is when we look at the compass.

By night, the compass is dark and hard to see (but if there is a full moon, you can see the compass with ease), but this doesn’t matter because the few times on night watch that we need to check the compass, we simply turn on a flashlight and take a look! Once that is over, we turn off the flashlight and let our eyes adjust back so we can continue to enjoy the stars.

Why is the compass of little importance while on night watch? Because the stars are out. On night watch, we simply look up at the sky and locate the North Star. If the boat is maintaining its course, all night long the North Star will stay in the same area of the sky relative to the boat. For example, if the North Star is on the port side just forward of the bimini (when viewed from the helm) then all night it should stay there since the North Star doesn’t move in the night sky. If you look up and notice that it has moved to a different part of the sky (relative to the boat) then you need had a wind shift and need to adjust the sails and windvane accordingly to bring the yacht back on course.

When setting a course, the compass is necessary. I can look into the sky and see where the North Star is but I can’t set a course by it. The compass lets you set a precise course that will get you towards your desired waypoint. Since we are at the mercy of the winds, our acceptable course is +/-20 degrees of our desired course. This means that if our desired course is 80, but the winds only allow us to sail at 74, then 74 is great! If the winds shift a bit and suddenly we find ourselves down to 65, this is still fine and we keep sailing along content with our heading. If we start veering even further and start sailing along at 58, we would consider tacking to bring us somewhere between 80 and 100. We find that we sail with the best VMG (Velocity Made Good) when we are about 70* off the wind. This means that pinching just isn’t worth it for us when we are crossing an ocean. We will sail on an undesirable course for days if it sets us up for a more favorable and more comfortable tack in the future.

All the while, we rarely look at the compass and therefore do not have a light in our compass as the very slight risk that the light might throw off the compass isn’t worthwhile for an instrument that we infrequently use!

Why Do You Need a Personal Injury Lawyer Before Sailing to Los Angeles?

California is one of the highest states in the country for boating incidents, according to the California Department of Boating and Waterways. In a recent survey on California waterways, the drowning incidents recorded were about 74 percent of deaths. Many general rules surrounding boating safety are not followed in such situations. The waterways in Los Angeles can be dangerous and that is why you must be prepared for unforeseen events before you even start sailing. In case you get involved in an incident, you will need an experienced personal injury lawyer to defend you. 

Boat Accidents

There are several ways someone can get hurt or killed while on the water. Boat accidents can occur for a variety of reasons but most of them are due to the owner's negligence. This is alarming when families with children come on a holiday and one member of the family gets hurt due to a boat mechanical failure or some other unfortunate accident. Boat accidents may occur on a simple boat cruise along several rivers or beaches in Los Angeles and often can be due to the boat operator's inadequate qualifications. 

Injuries

A boat and other personal watercraft such as jet skis and wave runners are considered vehicles under California law and have unique operating regulations. While certain activities particularly those involving more hazardous water sports, may require the tourist's consent before participating in any activity, in other instances the fault may be attributable to the person who rented the vehicle. If you're on a boat and are hurt as a result of carelessness or lack of responsibility from someone else you will need experienced personal injury attorneys to assist you. 

Death 

To be seriously injured or to lose a loved one is never an easy thing to cope with. To have to deal with this is a stressful and challenging experience and there is no amount of financial gain that can replace a human being's life. Sorting out legal responsibility and monitoring insurance coverage in Los Angeles for boating accidents is something that can be accomplished with the help of an experienced accident lawyer who is familiar with boating and personal injury laws.  

Before you close the door behind you and make your way to the boat, make sure that you have considered everything on this list to ensure security for you and your family. It is important to note that you should have basic needs when sailing including food supply, drinking water, hygiene kit, medicines, and first aid kit. Likewise, Los Angeles has many rivers and water sports enthusiasts know how to enjoy all that nature has to bring.

Navigating Without a Compass by Night

After the sun sets, the stars come out! If you find yourself on a starry night without a compass, you are in luck!

During the day, you needed to set your watch to find North by using the hour hand on your watch, the “12” position on the face, and the knowledge of when “noon” occurs wherever you are on the Earth. By night, it is a lot simpler!

First, you have many stars in the sky which will tell you a wealth of information. One of the most important stars in the sky is Polaris, the North Star (which is the last star in the tail of the Little Dipper). This star is directly over the North Pole so if you draw an imaginary vertical line down to the horizon, that point is North.

Great, so if you want to go South, do you just turn your head around and keep looking back at Polaris?

Not exactly. Another useful constellation is Orion.

I personally have trouble seeing the entirety of Orion, but I can always seem to find his belt, and that is the important part!

The belt is easy to spot, as its three stars in an almost perfect line. The first start of the belt to rise above the horizon will rise over due East, and the last star to set in the belt and disappear behind the horizon will mark due West. These are handy because if you happen to spot the stars rising over the horizon, you can then have yourself a second cardinal point in the night sky (aside from North thanks to the North Star). Watching the stars set is easier in my opinion because you saw them all night and know where they are as they set instead of guessing which star is the first star of the belt to rise over the horizon.

While the belt gives you a direction at two small moments of the night, it does give you another good indication of South for the entire night. The “Sword” that hangs just below the belt is made up of what look like three stars, even though the middle one is actually a nebula. These three stars are in a perfect line and point roughly South.

I say roughly because there is a little wiggle room for error here. The “Sword” is most accurate when it is high in the night sky and perpendicular to the horizon. At this moment, South is a pretty well pointed area on the horizon. When the constellation is low to the horizon, like when it just rose or is setting, there is a bit of inaccuracy which makes it “roughly” South and not “due” South.

That said, if you don’t have a compass, being guided roughly South is better than

1. Not knowing which way you are going at all

2. Having to crane your neck around to see the North Star behind you

3. Being lost at sea as you sail in circles

The stars will guide you as you voyage across the sea, but do plan on having a compass that is in fine working order so that you don’t have to rely on the stars as your only form of navigation!

Navigating Without a Compass by Day

Your rudder steers your vessel but your compass guides your vessel!

What would you do if your compass dies? The compass could fall overboard, get affected by strong magnets, or even spring a leak and lose all its fluid. Now what?!

With paper charts, you can run out your Dead Reckoning line to see what area of the world you are heading towards if you don’t alter course; but you still need a way to make sure you are staying on a course.

By day, you have the Sun to use for navigation. By night you have the stars to guide you in the darkness of the open ocean.

The Sun rises in the East and sets in the West, roughly. Throughout the seasons there are some declination fluctuations since the Earth spins on a tilted axis. This means that the Sun will rise and set slightly South of East and South of West if you are in the Northern Hemisphere, and slightly North of East and North of West if you are in the Southern Hemisphere. Suddenly, using it as a guide begins to fail as an idea.

With an analogue watch, you can roughly figure out which way is North and South, but you are going to need some help. On land, where watches are set according to local time, all you have to do is pull out your watch and look at it. The problem is that you are out at sea, traveling across timezones, so your watch is no longer set to “local” time. Your first step will be to figure out what time is “local”.

You will need to sit around and observe the shadows on your boat. Preferably look at the shadows of your stanchions or some other small pole on your deck. You want to keep track of the shadow it casts, as the shadow will tell you which way is North at that instant and when “Noon” occurs to set your watch to.

As the sun rises and makes its way to the highest point in the sky, the shadow of such a component on your deck will begin to shorten. At it’s shortest, the shadow will be pointing North (opposite if you are in the Southern Hemisphere) and the moment when the shadow is shortest is “Noon”.

This sounds simple in theory, but it will be tricky to do and your measure of “Noon” will be rather rough since the boat is going to be moving around in the seas. If you happen to have a sextant, this measure of noon will be much more precise because you can use the sextant to find the highest position of the sun in the sky! If you had a sextant though, you wouldn’t need all these other methods because you would already be navigating!! Moving on…

You guess roughly what time is noon with your shadow trick and now you have a lowly calibrated watch that tells you the cardinal directions and is not on time with any other watch in the world! Using the watch, you can point the hour hand at the sun and look at the face of your watch. Now draw an imaginary line that bisects the angle between the hour hand and “12” on the face. If you are in the Northern Hemisphere, the bisecting line will point South and the opposite position on the watch face will point North.

If you are in the Southern Hemisphere, the opposite will be true and the line between the hour hand and “12” will be your North and the opposite side of the face will be South.

Let’s try this out in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s 6AM and the sun just came up over the horizon. You point the hour hand at the sun and look at the face.

Three points are going to be told on the face: Sun is at “6”, “12” is directly opposite so “9” will be pointing South, while “3” will be pointing North.

Now it’s 10AM and the sun is higher in the sky. Sun is at “10” “12” is much closer to the hour hand, “11” will be pointing South as it is the bisecting point on the face between the hour hand and “12”, therefore “5” is North.

At Noon, the Sun is at “12” and so is “12”, so “12” is South and “6” is North.

At 5pm, the Sun is starting to get low to the horizon. Sun is at “5”, “12” is now farther from the hour hand and “2:30” (halfway between 2 and 3) will be pointing South and 8:30 will be pointing North.

This is a cool parlor trick, but if you are sailing East or West, you will have to recalibrate your watch for the new “noon” as you will be traveling across timezones and your timely compass will begin to waver in accuracy.

Why does this work? It’s rather simple actually. If you are in the Northern Hemisphere (and not too close to the equator as during the summer, the sun actually comes over the equator which would then put you into the “Southern Hemisphere Setting” even though you are still in the Northern Hemisphere) the sun will rise in the East, set in the West, and transit the sky South of your position. At any point in the day, if you are looking in the direction of the sun you are also looking in a Southern direction. At Local Apparent Noon, the Sun will be directly South of you and any shadow cast will point due North. Therefore, as the sun rises, by tracking it with the hour hand which moves along the face of the watch at the same speed as the sun moves across the sky, you can track it’s position. Since the sun will be South of you at Noon, when the hour hand is at “12”, the angle between the hour hand and “12” will be 0 and “12” will be pointing South while “6” will be pointing North.

This lets you track the day and the sun to maintain your moving compass rose that floats around the face of the watch relative to the hour hand and “12” position.

The end result is a crude compass that will allow you to maintain a relative course without steering in circles.Now, if these concepts are familiar to you then you probably already understand the relationship between the Sun, time, and your position on the Earth. You might lose your compass, but you definitely still have your sextant secured in a safe place because the Sun is your guide and you already understand how and why a Noon-sight works.