A Report From Sea School

Well, I just finished up my first 2 days of Sea School in my quest to become a U.S. Coast Guard licensed Captain so I can be a guide. The first two days we covered Aides to Navigation, Plotting and other Basic Navigation stuff.

These are things like using a compass and charts to plot a course, finding your position using known landmarks, and the different buoys and daymarks and their meanings. So far so good. I try to study what we went over whenever I get home from class and take the practice tests at the end of the chapters we covered the days before so I can ask questions on any of the answers I miss, if I cannot figure out why my answer is incorrect after seeing the correct answer. So far so good.

Some of the things that are confusing are the various nautical terms used by mariners. Port and Starboard...which are left and right respectively are pretty easy..but then they toss in terms like left to starboard and that makes for confusion...(I figured out that it means you are passing something that is on your starboard side...so It describes your position in relation to that object...left (you) to starboard (the object).

The plotting portion was fairly easy, the most difficult part being the "line work" meaning trying to keep your angles as you move your parallel rulers from your position to the compass rose on the chart or from the compass rose to some other location without messing up your angle. Then of course you try to draw a line without messing up your angle..which can be very easy as the point on your pencil wears down and gets thicker...or you dont hold your pencil at the right angle etc...

Then there is the math...not too terribly difficult... There are basically two formulas that will get you through most of the stuff you need. One is for plotting your course taking into account variables such as variation of the earths magnetic field and deviations in your compass. It sounds really complicated but it is fairly simple once you have it explained to you and you do it a few times. The second is the Speed, Time, Distance equation. Another that is pretty easy. Of course we havent learned how to take into account other variables like wind, and current yet. (Set and Drift) . Working the problems is actually kind of fun.

Most of the students in the class of 7 are there for the same reason as I am I believe, to eventually become guides or charter captains. The first day the instructor asked us if we had boats, of course we all said yes. Then he went through and asked everyone what kind of boat we had. I had the proud distinction of having he only 65' Hatteras in the class... Just kidding. I told everyone that I am the proud Captain of a 15'6 Gheenoe and got a lot of snickers... (not the candy bar). A couple of the students have offshore type boats and a few inshore guys have nice bay and flats boats, everyone is at least 6 feet longer than mine too...lol
No big deal its not the size of the dog in the fight..its the size of the fight in the dog... lol

For any of you thinking about taking the course I will tell you right now, it has absolutely nothing to do with fishing or being a guide, or even running a charter operation from a business perspective. So if you decide to take the class, forget about fishing and guiding while you are taking the course and concentrate on learning what they are teaching you. Without passing this course you will never be a guide. That is what keeps me motivated to not fall asleep and pay attention and also to have the discipline to study to ensure my success.

There is a younger guy in the class, probably right out of high school, who is also taking the class so he can become a guide and he just doesnt get it. He cant figure out how to do the plotting and says that it doesnt matter because he will never use it etc. I told him he is very wrong in his assumption as he will use it at least once... if he expects to pass the test. After that, use it or not, that my friends, is a good enough reason for me to learn it.

I'll keep you posted.