BoatBanter.com - View Single Post

Chuck Cox

wrote:
The problem with a table from "somewhere" is that it may have computed
distances "as the crow flies" without factoring in points of land
jutting out, islands and other obstacles, not to mention currents,
tides and wind information. Sailing from port to port rarely involves
a straight line, and distance is only one measure anyway. The time
needed to get from point to point is likely more important than simply
knowing the approximate distances.

To my mind, the only places on a "distance table" that might be at all
useful would be ballpark estimates between distant points such as
Newport to Bermuda. Your actual trip will never match any estimate. I
would find looking up distances on a table to be more tedious than
glancing at a chart and making an eyeball estimate. I really can't see
how a table would make anything easier or more accurate, especially
for coastal navigation.

That may be why no one has produced one. :')

In New England, boating & shipping distance tables are common, I just haven't
found one with very many of the smaller ports. These tables are not
line-of-sight, they are calculated using navigable routes. The ones in the
USCG Coast Pilots are for big ships (e.g. they tend to route around Woods
Hole), whereas those in Eldridge and the cruising guides assume a shallower
draft and thus tend to have shorter distances.

I appreciate that you may not find the tables useful, but I do, and I'm just
trying to find a more detailed table than the ones I already have.

--
Chuck Cox
SynchroSystems - embedded computer design - http://synchro.com

my email is politician-proof, just remove the PORK