The art of the navigator

14.12.2021

The practise of navigation has been defined in a number of different ways, for example:

"Navigation (from the Latin navis, a ship, and agere, to direct) is the process of directing the movement of a ship or aircraft from one point to another. Both art and sience are involved in conducting a ship safely to its destination."
Dutton's Navigation and Piloting, 1969

Practical navigation (The Art of the Navigator) consists of the work necessary to solve the following problems:

How? Which way?(Passage Planning)
Where am I? (Determination of the ships position)
Which direction shall I steer? (Shaping the course)
How do I know that things are as I believe them to be? (Situational Awareness)

Movement at sea can be described by three terms: the starting point, the direction of movement and the The act of navigating is a mixture of art and science. Navigation consists of finding information about the waters under consideration, planning the voyage, managing and using available navigational- instruments and ones own experience in order to ensure that the plan is followed.

The art of navigation requires that the navigator is active and proactive, risk-conscious and capable of using the available resources of information, instruments and crew.

At the start of the voyage and in harbour the position of the vessel is mainly determined by eye

The art of the navigator N.V. Verlag

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