Navigation - Ocean Navigator

Getting the Picture

For sailors who plan to cruise overseas (including the Caribbean), using satellite imagery is an important subject. Based on our 20 years of experience cruising in the Caribbean, across the Pacific and all over Southeast Asia, we know that commercial charting accuracy away from the U.S. and Europe is not nearly as accurate and detailed as it is in North America. Exclusive use of a chart plotter even with expensive commercial charts can be a big problem if, like many cruisers, you use it to cruise in remote areas. The main issue is that these charts, though loaded with navigation…

For want of a chronometer

By the time George Simpson took command of the transport hospital ship, Arniston, in 1814, he was a 60-year-old, seasoned mariner. Arniston was owned by a company called Borradailes of London and had been requisitioned by the Royal Navy to bring invalided soldiers of the 73rd Regiment and some of their families back to England from Ceylon (modern day Sri Lanka). Arniston was an East India merchant ship built on the Thames in 1794. Armed with 58 guns, it was 175 feet LOA, with a 43-foot beam, drawing 17 feet. On this voyage, Arniston would be homeward bound with 378…

The 222 Cruise

BY DAVID BERSON At first glance there is nothing that newsworthy about three old friends going cruising from Bermuda via the Azores to England; that is unless you consider that these three friends were each 74 years old. In 1981, when they made the cruise, age 60 was considered “elderly.” The British press referred to the cruise as the “222”— a reference to the combined ages of the sailors. All three of these septuagenarians were special in another way; they were all highly decorated Royal Navy veterans. Each had earned the Distinguished Service Cross for their gallantry and bravery during…