Is there a better way to use a compass?

[FPDocMatt]

It seems awkward to me to swim along the lubber line, but focus on keeping the compass needle in a different direction from the direction in which I'm heading.

More logical, it seems to me, would be a compass with which you had to keep an indicator between two tick marks in the direction you're swimming.

Is there such a thing?

Thanks!
Matt

 

[Insta-Gator]

It's very difficult (for me) to watch a compass while swimming. If the water is clear enough, I usually just take a sighting to a distant point in the direction I want to go and swim to it, ... repeat ...

In very low viz, you pretty much have to watch the compass. Keep it high enough in your vision so you can see the degree indicator and what's in front of you without having to "look up and down" between the two.

 

[FPDocMatt]

It's very difficult (for me) to watch a compass while swimming. If the water is clear enough, I usually just take a sighting to a distant point in the direction I want to go and swim to it

Yes. I'm not an outdoorsman, but I suspect that compass use on land involves the process you describe. Check your compass, locate a distant landmark, and walk toward it. Then take another heading to a farther landmark, etc.

 

[Bob DBF]

It seems awkward to me to swim along the lubber line, but focus on keeping the compass needle in a different direction from the direction in which I'm heading.

Compass needles always point north, which has made them handy over the years, and you are using the north reference to keep the lubber line in the direction of your travel. It's a shortcut so you don't have to concentrate on the heading on the compass card under the lubber line.

More logical, it seems to me, would be a compass with which you had to keep an indicator between two tick marks in the direction you're swimming.

As a boat handler navigating, I would have the course heading alligned with the lubber line. However, I would have a lot bigger and differently configured compass to make that easy.

I would imagine you might find a large underwater compass to make it possible but it would be an expensive pain in the butt to drag around for a limited increase in actual diving accuracy.

On the other hand, you could just dive north and south. Thats my favorite navigation pattern.



Bob
--------------------------------
I may be old, but I’m not dead yet.

 

[Insta-Gator]

Yes. I'm not an outdoorsman, but I suspect that compass use on land involves the process you describe. Check your compass, locate a distant landmark, and walk toward it. Then take another heading to a farther landmark, etc.

As your profile says you are not yet certified, I'm curious as to your background/experience in scuba and underwater navigation. If you take a navigation course you will learn to use landmarks and sightings. If you are in very low viz or very deep water that has no landmarks, you'd best know how to estimate your swimming speed and the speed of any current you may find yourself in. Else, the lubber line, regardless of size, will do you little good. It's not a land thing, it's a navigation thing.

 

[g1138]

Focus on the heading numbers rather than the arrow for North. It may make it seem more logical for you then.

Otherwise you can always view your direction of travel as a reference to the North Pole rather than a reference to your actual destination.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Hi Matt, As someone who sees underwater navigation as a basic and core skill of the competent diver I hear you and know what you are talking about. I wrote the underwater nav course that my agency makes available to our instructors and as such have some opinions on the subject. A compass that allows you to keep the lubber line between two marks would be difficult to do using a magnetic compass. I have yet to use an electronic one but have a student who has one and he does indeed swim the heading it indicates but there are no marks to hold anything in between. It just displays the heading. I am getting a new computer in the near future that has an electronic compass and look forward to seeing the difference it makes.

The whole secret of success to Underwater Navigation with a compass is to make it a point to use it on every dive. No exceptions. And when starting navigation to work as a team with your buddy. Now nearing 400 dives I started around dive number 12 or so to do this. Not only with a buddy but alone as well. Even when being led by a guide or DM I never trust them to know how to get back to the entry point or boat. I look at it as my responsibility to listen to the briefing, and as I'm ready to drop in take a heading on the direction we are going. With a buddy we share the duties after that. He/she will watch for points of interest and note times, depths, etc if I'm really concentrating on the compass as I often need to do in the low vis we dive in.

Successful nav is making use of natural features as well as the compass. Most of the issues I encounter when teaching nav involve divers not trusting their compass. I guess having put what I have into developing my nav skills has resulted in it being instinctual to do so and to use the compass as it's intended by swimming the lubber line and keeping the north indicator between two points. I have found that what helps students the most is to introduce as many opportunities to use the compass as possible and get them to rely on it as much as they do their spg. I'm not sure how many dives you have or if you've taken a good UW Nav course that presents the basics in clear easy to understand steps as well as covers the why of those steps. But I highly recommend doing it.

My course can be done in a weekend and has 6 dives as well as 6 hours of classroom either separate or on site. 3 or 4 dive courses with minimal classroom don't seem to give the diver enough of a chance to get the skills down. That means diving. I choose sites where bottom times each dive are around an hour. SO there is plenty of time to practice and work on it. I also use reels and lines and when a tie off is made and a change in direction done we take headings on all runs. So you learn to use the compass in conjunction with other resources. That I have found reinforces the ability to trust the compass as you have a physical line to work with as well as a virtual one.

 

[TSandM]

I have to confess the whole bezel and lubber line thing baffled me when I was a new diver. What I COULD figure out, and do, was to swim a heading. If it was 240 to the site, I kept 240 in the window, and all was good. I can subtract or add 180 to things underwater, even at depth, so that was good, too. It wasn't until my task-loading tolerance was VASTLY increased that I could deal with the bezel and the ticks and all that stuff.

I still do as much natural navigation as possible, and leave the compass for a backstop, or for the rare occasion where there is no depth contour or structure to follow.

 

[LowDrag]

Trust your compass, when I was in the Army doing nav courses it was amazing to watch what a competent person could do with a compass. On the other hand it was also a long march with someone who wasn't so competent...LOL!!! :cool2:

 

[j yaeger]

the biggest concern with a new diver is the up/down direction

get the bouyancy right-then move on to directions left /right

have fun -a very happy new years to you all!!!!!!!
yaeg