In age of satellite navigation, when access to electronic charts and GPS receivers is so easy and common, traditional navigation becomes less popular and rarely practiced. This is the price of progress and one should not interfere with it. We can only ask question: Who the navigator is, when he or she looses her laptop or GPS? What to do when not knowing so often called "archaic" navigation?

Maybe these questions reflect the idea and the point of knowing traditional navigation.
Dear navigator and sailor, we hope that the next chapters on this web site will help you to do the fix (determine your position), to calculate and give helmsman proper course to steer, as well as fill the logbook with all necessary information. Most of all, I hope that you will be able to handle a situation when GPS fails, but remember - pure knowledge of navigation is not everything to safely sail on yacht.

Navigation means to safely move a yacht from one place to another. In order to do that one needs to know it's position, the place on water where we are. However it is not good to overestimate role of the chart and GPS in this respect or generally speaking importance of position calculating. We may know our coordinates (Latitude and Longitude), because they are displayed on screen, but it takes some time to plot them on chart. Later on it takes even more time to assess how this position influences our present situation at sea. This hole time taken could be enough to run a yacht aground or to collide with a vessel. Therefore sometimes it is more important to stay vigilant on deck, because it is not only thorough nautical knowledge but also pure common sense that keeps us from disaster.

It is good to remember, that vessel behind horizon, yet invisible for us, can be in our position within 15 minutes and a big genoa, obstructing the view on leeward, decreases the time to notice that vessel even more. Additionally nowadays motor vessels have lesser crews and so the possibility of carelessness increases on both sides.
Article fragment "Nawigacja pi razy oko" Kapitan K. Baranowski Żagle 4/2004

Nautical navigation is a part of knowledge on how to safely sail on yacht from one place to another. Navigation gives us an answer on where our yacht is in particular time (position) and how to sail, avoiding all dangers underway, to finally reach our destination. Summarizing: navigation is about solving two problems: determine our position and obtain proper course.

With respect to method to obtain position, we can divide navigation into:

• Satellite navigation - where GPS receiver is used. It communicates with 24 GPS satelites orbiting the Earth. Up to date coordinates are given constantly
• Terrestrial navigation - used in land vicinity. Determination of coordinates is based on observation of land objects. With this method we use charts, sailing pilots, lists of lights and fog signals etc.
• Radar navigation - obtaining of coordinates is based on observation of land contour, navigation marks etc. on radar screen. The range where we can use radar navigation is far bigger than in case of terrestrial navigation.
• Pilot navigation - position is obtained by observation of passed buoys, beacons, leading lights etc. Used mainly when approaching harbours.
• Dead reckoning - approximate yacht position based on last observed position and course and distance sailed.
• Astronavigation - based on observation of heavenly bodies like sun, stars and planets. Used mainly on ocean voyages.
• Radio navigation - not in use any more. Positions were calculated using radio bearings to radio stations.
• Inertial navigation - used mainly on submarines. Position is automatically calculated by advanced gyroscopic systems.

To make a safe passage (safe voyage from one place to another) we need to know proper course. By knowing accurate position of yacht and using charts, sailing pilots, lists of light, nautical tables etc., we are able to determine it. To make a safe passage we also need to refer to meteorology subject.

I invite you to read the next chapter.

• Chapter 1. GPS - The role of GPS for maritime navigation.
• Chapter 2. The basic concept of geographical - Longitude and Latitude.

Many thanks to Filip Wawer for translating this chapter into English

Next chapter: GPS