The new old navigation

You can do it with your eyes shut

- Sam Llewellyn writes nautical thrillers, edits The Marine Quarterly, and is perpetually patching up a 30ft ketch: samllewellyn.com

The equinox has come and gone, the mooring buoys are emptying out, and yachtsfolk seeking knowledge are filing into weird-smelling Further Education centres or squinting at screens to gain shore-based qualifications.

One of the most important aspects of these SBQs is Plotting your Position, which answers various ancient seagoing questions, viz. Where the Hell Are We?, How Did We Get Here?, and Where Next? The student mariner is by slow degrees inducted into the mystic arts of determining course to steer and course made good. His EPs cover the practice chart, and his ditty bag clanks with bits of transparent plastic, dividers and the odd sextant. After a winter's endeavour and a certain amount of varnishing, he will be perfectly qualified to climb aboard his yacht, throw all the navigational gubbins over the side, turn on the plotter, leave the harbour and turn right or left to taste.