Navigating Chaos

Classroom: Where brain cells burn...

We just finished our 2nd week of Terrestrial Navigation with one more to go. This week, we spent each day on a new topic, moving through Tides, Currents, Amplitude of the Sun and finally Azimuth of the sun.

Tides and currents are obviously important to the mariner, and fairly interesting to learn. We can take a listed depth, and make some corrections based off of historical data that will give us an exact depth of the water at a given point in time for safe passage. The same goes for currents, and knowing the exact speed and direction of a current at a specific time can aid you in safe voyage planning.

Amplitude and Azimuth are similar in that you are taking a bearing to the sun and comparing that to various resources in an attempt to find compass error. The process is complicated, painstakingly long and stressful. It's all based off of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), so you must first figure out a few things before moving through the equations. I got lost converting Local time to GMT in the first hour of class and couldn't grasp the concept to save my life and then we moved on to the next part. One question could potentially take 30 minutes to solve with all the trig and table cross-referencing.

The pace of the class, combined with the complexity of the material has helped me draw the conclusion that this was the hardest academic week that I've ever endured (including over 7 years of college classes). There is an amazing amount of stress knowing that we have a test on the material next week that requires a 100% to pass. You spend 10 minutes basing your entire equation on a certain time frame, only to realize that your time is off and the entire equation must be re-written, or that you used East Instead of West and must start over, doh!. I really want to study some of the other items that we will be tested on, but I first need to get a grasp around Azimuth and Amplitude before picking up the other topics again.

I love navigation and could see myself getting really into it, but the past few days have thrown a wet towel over my flames. The sad part is that these cool functions of navigation aren't being used that much on the water anymore because of technology. We rely on modern technology to give us everything we need and we trust that its accurate. If satellites and GPS are ever to stop functioning, there will be a bunch of lost people out there. I would really like to understand all the concepts and know them like the back of my hand, but even if I could possibly do that, it will get lost if not used. The boats that I'll be working on don't have the tools to take a bearing to the sun or the stars, so even if I tried to practice, I couldn't. So, we jump through the hoops that the Coast Guard lays down and we spend time learning things that potentially and unfortunately, may never get used.

I now know why sailors have a reputation for over-indulging in drink... Because their brains are full of crazy complex equations and they must "silence the voices" more often.

So, this weekend I study and try to find a way to learn. Hopefully the planets align and somehow I can pull it off on test day, and put this stuff to rest. I keep trying to remind myself that there are other Mates and Officers out there less bright than me who have somehow passed this class. Its not rocket science, but it is complex and it comes at you fast. The best analogy for this class, is that its like trying to take a sip from a fire hose. I try to convince myself that this is some sort of test of perseverance and only the strong-willed will survive. At least for now, that simple thought makes me smile.

I'm tough, I'll figure it out...

Shaking it off at Hooverville

 

Posted with Blogsy