On Sun, 18 Apr 2004 02:24:47 -0400, in message

rhys wrote:

On Sat, 17 Apr 2004 23:08:53 GMT, otnmbrd
wrote:

I'm not seeing too much emphasis on compass entries.

Mine ARE compass entries, corrected to true. Variation is either 10 or
11 degrees W on Lake Ontario...it's hard to screw up if you have even
half a clue about reading a chart.

Quite so.... if you stay in the neighbourhood of Toronto, but it's up
to 13 degrees by the time you get to the other end of the lake ;-)

I transfer any "summation" to the log, but in Lake Ontario, it's 95%
coastal pilotage and there's only a few places with shoals, rocks and
big chunks of iron under the boat...

and most of them are more down towards Kingston. I find that very
little routine nav information finds its way into my log. I always
have a reasonable idea of where I am from following GPS, chart, and
visual cues. That has previously served as an entirely adequate
starting basis for dead reckoning on the locally rare occasions when
the visibility drops to near zero and there was no GPS. Unseaman-like,
perhaps...... but reality in relatively familiar waters.

My log winds up being a combination of local knowledge gleaned and
journal of events that works well in a record book with a wide margin
for noting dates, times and readings beside the narrative. I switched
to that from a fixed format columnar log about 3 years ago.

Ryk