On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 04:53:53 GMT, Jere Lull wrote:

Every once in
awhile, I'll notice I'm "accidently" steering off course, the bow up to
20 degrees off of intended course, then find I'm correcting for a
current I wasn't consciously aware of. I'm probably automatically
"ranging" whatever's in the water against the shoreline.

That happens to me too! Heh. Here in Lake Ontario on a light air day,
you can "find" fairly substantial currents of 1-1 1/2 knots. They are
local and wander due to the interaction of river outflows and the odd
features around Toronto. We use 'em when we race, but if you are
making a lazy four knots under a full hoist, a tied off tiller and
three degrees of heel (due to the case of beer), it's a shock to do
that "ranging" thing and find you've drifting several hundred metres
to the south! Same course, same bearing, but the boat's quietly
crabbed.

There's a lot of chimneys and isolated tall buildings to act as range
finders. Another tip for getting a dead-ahead bearing is to put a
litle tape or a few inches of streamer on the pulpit on either side so
that it lines up with your seating position looking dead forward. The
distance to the pulpit from the cockpit (about 27 feet in my case)
makes for even greater accuracy.

Other people use the trick of holding a thumb at arm's length, and
sighting the thumb to the high side of the forestay. That should
correct about 2.5 degrees. It's an old astronomer's trick I learned as
a kid.

R.