Synopses & Reviews
Tom Cunliffe has crossed many oceans. If blue water cruising is your game, this is the book for you.Part 1 covers celestial navigation - fixing your position by sextant. This is an interesting and elegant method of knowing where you are - and may save your life some day. Even in this electronic age, it is a skill every skipper should possess.
Part 2 looks at the world's weather systems and how to use them to your advantage. Hurricanes and typhoons are analysed - with the emphasis on avoiding them! But if a trade wind squall strikes or an approaching hurricane looks like slipping by your strategic defences, Cunliffe is on hand with remedial advice.
Part 3 explains what you actually do out at sea. It covers gathering information, making plans, what to take, how to run watch systems, and the delight of making long passages.
Synopsis
Tom Cunliffe has crossed many oceans. If blue water cruising is your game, this is the book for you. Part 1 covers celestial navigation - fixing your position by sextant. This is an interesting and elegant method of knowing where you are - and may save your life some day. Even in this electronic age, it is a skill every skipper should possess. Part 2 looks at the world's weather systems and how to use them to your advantage. Hurricanes and typhoons are analysed - with the emphasis on avoiding them! But if a trade wind squall strikes or an approaching hurricane looks like slipping by your strategic defences, Cunliffe is on hand with remedial advice. Part 3 explains what you actually do out at sea. It covers gathering information, making plans, what to take, how to run watch systems, and the delight of making long passages.
About the Author
Tom Cunliffe is one of Britains's leading writers on sailing and the sea. This is his sixth book. He is regularly published in the UK and USA yachting press. He is a Yachtmaster instructor and Examiner, with special responsibility for training offshore instructors, and is a consultant for US Sailing.
He has cruised to destinations as diverse as Brazil, Iceland, the Caribbean and Russian, and currently cruises a traditional 40 foot gaff cutter built in modern materials in North America.
Table of Contents
Part One - Celestial Navigation.Introduction.
1. The Earth and the heavens.
2. The sextant.
3. The noon sight for latitude.
4. Time.
5. Position lines and plotting.
Tables.
6. Sun sights.
7. The planets.
8. The Moon.
9. The stars.
10. Polaris - the Pole Star.
11. Compass checking on the ocean.
12. The shortest way.
Part Two - Deep Water Meteorology.
13. Ocean meteorology.
14. Tropical weather.
15. The Tropical Revolving Storm.
16. Navigating in the vicinity of a Tropical Revolving Storm.
17. Modern weather forecasting and communications.
Part Three - The Ocean Passage.
18. Ocean passage planning.
19. Making on ocean passage.