How are you at Navigation?

[Atomic_Diver]

I am very very good about navigation, and if the viz is bad, i just cheat and use my Cave diving reel, and tie off and do pretty much an expanding circle, for instance, i went solo diving off of ft.myers, FL the other day with 25' viz, and a depth of 60' i had Nitrox 40% and dove whine doing an expanding circle, with double LP 121's and had an amazing dive, surfaced, exactly at the same spot i entered, and went home.......

 

[boulderjohn]

Navigation is easy if you're a wreck diver...

There's a line.
There's a boat on either end.
Follow the line to the boat on the bottom.
Follow the line back to the boat on the top.

If both boats are on the bottom, it's a bad day.

I know RJP was kidding, but there is a serious point hidden there.

A lot depends upon where you dive.

There are many places which call for good navigation skills from the start. If you dive those locations regularly, you have to have good navigation skills.

There are lots of places where navigation is so obvious you don't think about it. I am including typical drift dives and resort area dives led by a DM as well as the wrecks mentioned above. If that type of diving is what you do most frequently--or exclusively--you will forget any navigation skills you ever had before too long.

 

[merxlin]

Keep going 25 kick cycles on a 120 heading, turn right to 190 and then 15 kick cycles, it's on your left.

Thanks Dave. As usual, if I get to The Pub I've gone too far.

Although I do claim to be bad at nav, my nav skills aren't horrible, I just have a hard time recognizing natural landmarks. Honestly, on land, no map, no compass, no problem. Underwater I seem to lose that ability, compass or no compass. Out & back, left then right turn and come back. Its just when to head toward the boat thats an issue for me. That rock with the kelp looks just like the other rock and kelp to me. But I am working hard on it. I usually get us back even with the boats distance from shore, just inside or outside.

Maybe Dave will let me lead a dive tomorrow and help me "adjust" when needed.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

Navigation is easy if you're a wreck diver...

There's a line.
There's a boat on either end.
Follow the line to the boat on the bottom.
Follow the line back to the boat on the top.

If both boats are on the bottom, it's a bad day.

Classic!

I was a ship's navigator in my 20's, so using a compass is easy.... but yes, if I don't pay attention I still get lost.

The shorter sight distances underwater can make it easy to get "turned around" or miss a landmark... and sometimes long stretches of gently-sloping coral reef can begin to look uniform, and it is easy to miss a turn point.

So my "sub-surface" navigation will always be "getting better" with time.... no sextants underwater (yes, we used sextants back then, GPS was still rare).

Best wishes.

 

[Teamcasa]

Navigation is easy if you're a wreck diver...

There's a line.
There's a boat on either end.
Follow the line to the boat on the bottom.
Follow the line back to the boat on the top.

If both boats are on the bottom, it's a bad day.

Good one! But following a string is not really navigation, it more like what Hansel and Gretel did but without the dissolving bread crumbs.

 

[boulderjohn]

If both boats are on the bottom, it's a bad day.

Especially if you are using surface supplied air.

 

[dwhthediver]

:lol:

 

[@sea]

I always carry a compass with me.
On a few dive sites it's very useful.
For this reason I recommend the compass for any diver.
It’s not too much to carry even if you don’t use it all the time.

 

[Teamcasa]

Maybe Dave will let me lead a dive tomorrow and help me "adjust" when needed.

Last time I let a guy lead a dive in the dive park we ended up in Ensenada

 

[fdog]

Weeeellll....this last weeekend I had to appoligize profusely to my team mates - returning from Three Sisters, I had missed our staging buoy, at the boat ramp at Point Lobos, by about 10'.

Darn. Mea culpa.


All the best, James