"Josephine" was charging along through the tradewind night. The Canary Islands had long ago slipped over the transom, and Antigua was days ahead on the bow. Clouds had built throughout the early part of the night, and lightening sparkled in the distant sky. As the 0200 watch took the helm and settled into their routine, however, it seemed like it would be a night much like any other. A call at 0300, however summoned me back to the deck. St. Elmo's fire lit the upper third of the standing rigging. Electricity hung heavy in the night air. Suddenly there was a flash.
Lightening strikes boats in a wide variety of places, causing an equally wide variety of damage. Strikes happen to boats on inland lakes, in marinas, while coastal cruising or racing and in the middle of the ocean. Through-hulls can be blown out. Pinholes can perforate the hull, or instruments can be selectively or collectively rendered useless. In short, it's a mess!
The first priorities, as in any emergency, are damage assessment and control. Make sure the crew is uninjured or cared for, the hull is watertight, and the rig still intact. Critical situations are addressed first to limit further problems. As those immediate, high priority emergencies are met, more time will be devoted to understanding the extent and nature of the problems in navigation. In offshore navigation, it may well be time to turn back to basics as electronic wind instruments, position fixing devices, computers, speedo's, radar, and depth sounders may all be useless. Compasses - even deck mounted or binnacle compasses - may be remagnetized, leading to erroneous heading information. If you're going to arrive at your destination, you may very well need to reach into that bag of tricks to improvise.
Computers aboard vessels have provided terrific benefits to navigators. Communications have been enhanced. Data logging has been automated, and information is more quickly manipulated for analysis. But written logs are still an important aspect of proper navigation. The day or night that the computer fails because of lightening, a wave splashing through a porthole, or a power failure will provide a case in point. You need to know where you are and where you've been with AND without electronics. Similarly, paper charts, light lists, and nautical almanacs may also prove to be critically important. Even while offshore, the prudent navigator makes periodic written log entries, noting time, position, speed, heading, wind and weather conditions and any other items of interest.
With a known position, the navigator must as always be prepared to determine a course to get the crew and vessel safely to port. With electronic compasses disabled, and perhaps deck compasses that are re-magnetized, he may be forced to rely on a handbearing compass or other means of determining direction. You won't know whether or not the lightening has affected your compass until you check it against known landmarks, navigational aides or a naturally occurring means of direction finding. Among the few naturally occurring direction indicators are the North Star (Polaris), Orion's Belt and the sun. During a lightening strike, the sky is at least partially overcast, making it difficult to use celestial bodies for reference points. When lightening seems like a possibility, not only should you disconnect some of your positioning devices and stow hand-bearing compasses away from electrically conducive objects or wiring, you should also make note of wave directions in the log. They may provide a short-term reference for direction later in an extreme situation.
As the sky clears or gaps appear in the clouds, you can check your deck compasses to determine if they have been re-magnetized. During the night you can head your vessel towards Polaris, noting the compass bearing to the star. Allowing correctly for magnetic variation, are you pointed toward true north? If not, how far off are the compasses? If locating the North Star is a problem or as an additional check use Orion's Belt if it's low enough on the horizon. In the constellation Orion, the uppermost star in the belt rises almost exactly in the east and sets almost exactly due west. To help determine direction during the day you can use a watch with an hour hand if you don't have a functioning compass. Point the hour hand toward the sun. An imaginary line halfway between the hour hand and an imaginary line to the 12 will point approximately toward south. Naturally, a compass is more accurate, but at least you will have an idea of how to check your deck compass to make sure it hasn't been totally rearranged by the lightening strike.
Once you know that you're underway in the correct direction, your DR position will depend on how accurately you keep track of your speed. Only decades ago, boats often carried taffrail logs to determine speed and mileage. Spinners were towed behind a boat, and as the line twisted, an odometer recorded the information. A mechanical device, the taffrail log wasn't dependent on electricity, but the spinners were susceptible to being eaten by sharks on occasion. Those unaccustomed to sextant and taffrail log would be amazed at how accurately landfalls could be predicted. And that form of navigation could be performed without benefit of electricity.
In most cases, however, the taffrail log has become extinct as an available navigational tool. Returning again to basics, speed can be quickly calculated by tossing a floating chip (biodegradable, please) off the bow and timing how long it takes to float a given distance beside the vessel. Speed is a measurement of distance divided by time in which 1 foot / second = .5925 knots. If you multiply both sides of the equation by the same number, the new values will also be equal. If, for example it takes a wood chip floating down the length of a 60 foot vessel 5 seconds to complete the distance, you merely multiply 60/5 x .5925 to find the speed in knots. The boat would be traveling at 7.11 kts approximately. If you etch the equation "1 foot/second = .5925 kts" in the bottom of the nav table top, you'll always be able to figure out your boat speed. Doing the timed procedure several times and averaging the results may help to provide a bit more accuracy.
Deprived of the use of electronics, there is little substitute for a good sextant and published tables to determine your position while offshore. It's an art form that has made possible countless thousands of successful circumnavigations, and its continuing importance in emergency situations couldn't be over-emphasized. Following an electrical strike, handheld calculators may or may not be functioning. Hopefully, the navigator thought ahead and set an accurate wristwatch prior to departure, and that is still operating properly. RDF signals have, for the most part been discontinued in U.S. waters. The few radio beacons that still remain are scheduled to be discontinued by 2000.
Observation will help answer a number of questions for the navigator. Wind speed can be approximated using the Beaufort Force Scale. Originally developed to provide a scale based on visual observations of the sea surface, you can get a very rough equation of wind speed by subtracting 1 from the number of the Beaufort Force and multiplying that by 5. The resultant number will be a rough approximation of wind speed in knots. (i.e.: Force 7 is about 30 knots +/- ((7-1) x 5 = 30). Also it can be helpful to understand that whitecaps begin to form in about 11 or 12 knots of true wind speed. When the water temperature is very cold and the air temperature is rather warm, such as in the morning during the spring, wind at the masthead may not match the wind speed on the water's surface, however. Those conditions are conducive to wind shear.
Many good barographs are still mechanical and don't rely on electricity other than a small self-contained battery. With some cloud study, and an understanding of the interrelationship between barometric pressure, wind direction and wind speed, a good navigator can begin to get an understanding of what kind of weather to expect in the near term and on which side of a low pressure system a vessel will pass. Sea state can also provide clues about weather systems that may be hundreds of miles away.
Wave shapes can also provide clues about shallows about to be encountered. Steep breaking waves on a landfall should get particular attention and may indicate reefs or shallow spots. If one is given a choice between making a landfall in an unfamiliar place at night without knowing one's exact position or heaving to, the safe option should be obvious: heave to or anchor. Wait for daybreak. Locate known navigational aides and confirm them with at least two or three other sources of information and proceed slowly. Depth sounders provide a convenient sense of security and very valuable information, but these too, depend on electricity. Lead lines, like taffrail logs seem to have gone out of vogue. Certainly a rough lead line can be fashioned out of line that is marked every 10 feet with one, two, three, or four colored bands to indicate 10, 20, 30 or 40 feet of depth. And a single band of a different color can be put between the others to indicate 15, 25, or 35 feet of depth. But wouldn't it be easier to have a proper lead line made up and stowed in the nav station, just in case there's an electrical problem?
Humorous anecdotes exist about "potato navigation" in coastal Maine's fog. "Send the person with the strongest throwing arm up to the bow with a 10 lb. bag of potatoes," the story goes. "As you approach the anchorage, he should throw a potato every 30 seconds. As long as he hears a splash, you're not too close to the shore. When he hears a thud, you're too close." While the story may be a bit of a joke and distort prudent navigation, a point can be well taken. Listen to what is happening around you as well as watch. Waves may be breaking in the fog, signaling shallows. Horns or bells may signal buoys that will help you determine your approximate position. Even the sonic boom of the Concorde may help you to understand that you're still on the Great Circle Route to Europe while in a North Atlantic fog bank.
There are a variety of man-made clues to direction and location that can serve as hints. Aircraft contrails and the glow of a large city's lume offer a couple of hints. Atlantic City can be visible at sea for 20 miles or more. While stories exist about people who navigate their way to Hawaii following the trails left by passenger jets, following the plane headed toward Tahiti may prove to be a sidestep you'd rather not take. Learning celestial navigation and having the proper tools would be a far better way to get across the Pacific in an emergency.
Happily enough, the lightening that struck close to "Josephine" didn't hit the boat, and we didn't need to reach too deeply into our "bag of navigational tricks" to get us home. In that instance, it was merely a nightmare that didn't become a reality. Other boats I've sailed on, however, haven't been so lucky. Boats ARE struck by lightening, and electrical failures DO occur - sometimes in mid-ocean. Understanding a few tricks isn't a substitute for prudent navigation, but with a little preparation a few tricks can help iron out some wrinkles in an emergency situation.
Respect is earned... and our next contributor, Bill Biewenga is in the company of very few. Bill is one of America's most accomplished offshore sailors. He has accumulated approximately 400,000 sea miles including 37 transatlantic crossings, several TransPacs, numerous record attempts, deliveries and races, as well as participation in four round the world races. He has worked as skipper, navigator, weather analyst/router, watch captain, helmsman, deck hand, and project manager collecting a vast amount of knowledge and experience. Currently Bill is actively engaged in racing and delivering a variety of vessels, routing for some of the world's top offshore campaigns, and conducting seminars and writing articles on navigation, marine weather and how to efficiently use weather information, as well as other marine topics. Bill's two web sites,
WxAdvantage.com and www.weather4sailors.com provide a wealth of information.
Here is Bill's First Lesson: LIGHTENING STRIKE! A Navigator's Nightmare
WxAdvantage.com and www.weather4sailors.com provide a wealth of information.
Here is Bill's First Lesson: LIGHTENING STRIKE! A Navigator's Nightmare
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