judging current; rules of thumb?
Shaun Van Poecke wrote:
Here's one for those of you out there without onboard
instruments/knotmeter/gps....
Is there any reasonably accurate (say, within a know or so) way of judging
the current, when you are under way, and there are no fixed objects within
sight?
Shaun
The ocean current at the surface is mostly wind driven. The surface
current diminishes rapidly with depth. Researchers have used with
limited success a long thin float dropped into the water. About one
meter sticks above the surface and about 3-6 meters below. The angle
that the stick tilts indicates the surface current speed relative to the
deeper layer current and the direction of tilt shows the current
direction. A bamboo pole on a weighted clorox bottle works ok. If the
float is anchored it is a better indicator.
Popeye
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