Position and Position Lines

IDENTIFYING THE DIFFERENT METHODS OF ESTABLISHING

POSITION ON THE EARTH
Fixing your position at sea has never been easier. Early GPS
revolutionized navigation by giving a read-out of latitude and longitude, which
you could plot on your paper chart. Now, that position is displayed on highly
detailed electronic charts and, providing the electronics keep working, you
can arrive at your destination simply by placing a few waypoints and following
the screen. This technology has made the sea both safer and more
accessible, but traditional navigation and pilotage techniques still have a
place in modern sailing.
1: Charted Object
One of the easiest ways to fix your position is to sail up alongside a
charted object. Buoys are the obvious choice, but remember that they can
be relocated, especially in areas of shifting sand or mud banks. Keep your
charts up to date, and where possible choose an object firmly fixed to the
seabed. Grab your chart, make a cross next to the object, note the time and
log reading, and you’re done.
2: Transits (bearing)
Transits are formed when two charted
objects are in line. They are often found marked
on charts, or in pilot books, to give a clearance
from a danger or a safe entrance into port. A
single transit provides an accurate line of position
and gets you halfway to an accurate fix – you just
need to find where you are on the line.
3. Crossed Bearing
The best way to find your position on a
transit is to find another one which crosses it,
ideally at about 90°. This is a tremendously
accurate way to fix your position, but you
generally need to plan the fix beforehand, so it’s
often used to give an accurate fix for starting a passage.
The easiest way is to find charted transits, or objects on the chart which
form suitable transits. Then, to get to the planned position, pick up one of the
transits and sail along it until the other transit marks come into line.
4. Transit and bearing
In the absence of another transit, a bearing on
a fixed object provides a good fix. Again, try to
choose an object which lies at roughly 90° to the
transit – shallow angles of intersection create
greater errors.

5: Three-point fix
Choose three charted objects,
maximising the angles between them
to minimise error. Lighthouses and
buildings are the ideal choice as they
don’t move and are easy to sight
through the compass. Headlands can
be good, but shallow promontories are
harder to accurately sight than steep
cliffs. Buoys can be used, but
remember that they move on the tide.
Take your bearings as quickly as possible, noting them down as you
go and leaving the one most abeam until last – this bearing changes the
fastest.
Then plot them on the chart. Unless you have a stationary boat and
extraordinarily steady hands the lines will not intersect perfectly, instead
coming together in a triangle called a ‘cocked hat’. Your true position could
be anywhere within this triangle, so the smaller it is, the more accurate your
fix.
6: Sounding crossed with bearing
The echo-sounder has of late become
simply a tool to prevent you running aground,
but in conjunction with the chart it can be a
useful source of position information.
To use the echo-sounder for position,
you need to know the current height of tide.

7: Running Fix
If there’s only one suitable
charted object in sight, and you can’t
determine your range using a depth
contour, given time you can find your
position using a running fix. This is often
the case at night, when your choice of
objects from which to take bearings are
limited to those that are lit.
This method is most appropriate when you are sailing more or less
parallel to the coast.
8: Double the angle on the bow
A special case of the running fix, this method relies on the fact that an
isosceles triangle has two sides the same length, with the larger angle being
double the smaller ones.
9: Dipping distance crossed with bearing
a clear night, the distance at which a lighthouse beam first becomes
visible can provide a surprisingly accurate calculation for your distance off.
To work it out, you need to estimate the height of your eye above sea level,
calculate the height of tide and find the height of the lighthouse.
10: Light sector cut-off
Sectored lights are common on the
approaches to harbours, or on headlands
where rocks project in a particular
direction. The cut-offs between the
coloured sectors are marked on the chart,
and when viewed from the sea are very
abrupt, making them a good position line
for navigation.
The cut-off line needs to be crossed
with another range or position line to give
a fix. A bearing on another light is ideal, or if you are on the dipping range for
one of the sectors that will give a range. Another option is to use your echo
sounder to find the depth, correct it for tide and cross the depth contour with
the light sector cut-off to find your position.
11: Using radar
If you have radar on board, it can be a powerful tool for positioning as
well as collision avoidance.
12: Using the VRM/EBL
All radars are equipped with a variable range marker (VRM) and an
electronic bearing line (EBL). These allow you to obtain an accurate fix from
a single object. Placing the electronic bearing line on an object will give you
its bearing, relative to the ship’s head, and the VRM
will give its range.
By adding or subtracting the bearing from the compass course,
depending on whether to object is to starboard or port, and correcting for
deviation and variation of the ship’s compass, the bearing can be drawn on
the chart and intersected with the range to give an accurate position by day
or night.
13. Crossed radar ranges
Another way to obtain your position by
radar is to use the VRM to find the range of
two objects (Racons are ideal). This avoids
any calculation at all: simply find the two
ranges and draw them on the chart with a pair
of compasses, using the charted object as
the centre.
The resulting circles will intersect in two
places, giving two possible positions.
However, it’s usually obvious which is correct
– the false one is often on land! If there is any
doubt, a rough bearing will clear up the
ambiguity.
14: Using a sextant
The sextant is usually thought of as only suitable for astro-navigation,
but in fact it is simply a highly accurate means of measuring angles. As nearly
all pilotage involves plotting angles, a sextant can be a powerful tool to help
obtain an accurate fix.
15: Distance off by vertical sextant angle
Similar to the technique for
finding your position using a
dipping distance, you can
calculate your position by
measuring the angle
between sea level and the
top of a charted object of
known height, such as a
lighthouse. Using the
sextant, bring the top of the
lighthouse down until it is
touching the sea, and read
off the angle.
Dead reckoning
Dead reckoning is a technique to determine a ship's approximate
position by applying to the last established charted position a vector or series
of vectors representing true courses and speed. This means that if we have
an earlier fix, we plot from that position our course and “distance travelled
since then” and deduce our current position.
Celestial Line of Position
Plotting the line of position
The accompanying plot used an assumed latitude of 31° N; assumed
longitude of 54° 12.1’ W; Zn = 150°; and an intercept of 14.8 miles away.
There are four numbers required for plotting a line of position (LOP):
1) assumed latitude, 2) assumed longitude, 3) Zn and 4) the intercept. Before
these can be plotted, a plotting sheet must be set up (see our first installment
in this series).
First, plot the assumed
position (AP). This is fairly
easy because the assumed
latitude is a whole degree
and will always be on a
printed line of latitude.
Remember that the minutes
of longitude come from the
longitude scale at the bottom
of the plotting sheet.
Next, plot the Zn
through this AP. The Zn is
always in true direction so it
can be taken directly from
the rose on the plotting
sheet. It is helpful to draw an
arrow on the Zn line in the
direction of the sun.
 Starting at the AP, measure the intercept (remember this is in miles
and must be taken from the latitude scale) either toward the sun or away
from it along the Zn and make a hash mark.

The LOP will be drawn through this hash mark at right angles (90°) to
the Zn. This is most easily accomplished by adding 90° to the Zn, finding that
on the compass rose and moving it to the intercept hash mark. The LOP
must be labeled; customarily, this is with “SUN” and the time.

Step-By-Step Sight Reduction

A. Sextant sight correction sequence
Overview: The reading from the sextant (Hs) needs to be corrected for index
error, height of eye and the main sun correction to give Ho, the observed
altitude.
1. Start with Hs, the angle that you read off of your sextant.
2. Apply the index correction.
3. Correct for height of eye using the dip table on the inside front cover of the
Nautical Almanac. The dip correction is always subtracted. The result is the
apparent altitude, or Ha.
4. Determine and apply the main sun correction from the inside front cover
of the Nautical Almanac.
5. The final result is Ho, the observed altitude.
B. Using the Nautical Almanac
Overview: The Nautical Almanac is used to pinpoint the exact position of the
sun (or other celestial body) second by second. Enter the daily pages with
the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) of the sight and leave the Nautical
Almanac with GHA and declination.
1. Find the page in the Nautical Almanac with the date of your sight.
2. On the left side of the right page is a column with every hour of the three
days covered on that page. Go down the column until you find the correct
hour in GMT of the correct day.
3. Find the GHA and the declination of the sun in the next two columns and
extract those numbers.
4. At the bottom of the declination column is a value for “d.” If the declination
is decreasing during the day, then d is negative; if declination is increasing,
then d is positive.
5. At the end of the Nautical Almanac is a section of colored pages labeled
”Increments and Corrections.” There is half a page for each minute. Find the
page with the correct minute of GMT. Move down the far left column to the
row for seconds of GMT. On that row, move to the first column to the right
(for sun and planets). Add this number to the GHA for the final GHA.
6. Staying in the same box, there is a column labeled “v or d.” Go down that
column until you find your value for d. The number directly to its right should
be added to the declination if d is positive and subtracted if d is negative.

C. Find the LHA and assumed latitude

Overview: LHA is the combination of GHA and the assumed longitude. In the
Western Hemisphere, LHA = GHA minus assumed longitude. In the Eastern
Hemisphere, LHA = GHA plus assumed longitude.
1. To enter the tables, LHA must always have 00.0 minutes. Because of this,
in the Western Hemisphere the minutes of the assumed longitude always
equal the minutes of the GHA. Assumed longitude is not the same as DR
longitude.
2. Start with GHA and then fill in the minutes of assumed longitude so that
the minutes of LHA equal zero. Make the degrees of the assumed longitude
as close as possible to the DR longitude.
3. To find assumed latitude, take the DR latitude and round it off to the
nearest degree.
D. HO 249
Overview: The sight reduction tables are based on a set of algorithms
derived from the navigational triangle. They convert the assumed latitude,
declination and LHA into Zn and a calculated altitude (Hc). It is a calculated
altitude because it is based on the assumed position.
1. Enter the table with assumed latitude, declination and LHA.
2. Find the correct page. First, find a page with your assumed latitude.
Second, find a page with the degrees of declination (0° - 14°) or (15° - 29°).
Third, determine if the declination and latitude are the same or contrary (they
are the same if both are north or both are south; they are contrary if one is
north and one is south). Fourth, find the page with the proper “SAME” or
“CONTRARY” designation. Fifth, recheck to make sure that the page has the
proper latitude, declination and sign.
3. Find the correct column for degrees of declination. Find the correct row
with LHA running up and down the sides of the page. LHA is greater than
180° on the right side of the page and less than 180° on the left side. It
sometimes runs over to the next page.
4. Extract Hc, d and Z. Make sure to get the proper sign for d; the sign is not
printed on each row.
5. Convert Z to Zn (azimuth) using these formulas supplied on each page:
Northern Hemisphere: if LHA > 180, then Zn = Z; if LHA < 180, then Zn =
360 – Z
Southern Hemisphere: if LHA > 180, then Zn = 180 – Z; if LHA < 180, then
Zn = 180 + Z
6. Use Table 5 in the back of the volume. Enter with d and minutes of
declination. If d is positive, add result to Hc; if d is negative, subtract the
result from Hc. This gives the final value of Hc.
E. Find the intercept
Overview: This is determining whether our position is closer to the sun than
the assumed position. The larger the altitude, the closer to the sun.
1. Find the difference between Hc and Ho (subtract one from the other). Each
minute equals one nautical mile.
2. Determine if the intercept is to be plotted toward or away. If Hc > Ho, plot
away; if Ho > Hc, plot toward.

F. Plotting
Overview: The plotting sheet should be used for keeping a DR track as well
as for celestial information. For a sun sight, use the assumed latitude,
assumed longitude, Zn and intercept to create a line of position (LOP).
Remember: One sight yields one LOP, not a fix.
1. Set up your plotting sheet for your area of the ocean.
2. Plot your assumed position (AP). Assumed latitude is the whole degree of
latitude used to enter HO 249. Assumed longitude is the longitude that was
subtracted from GHA to get LHA, not your DR longitude.
3. Plot your Zn (azimuth). The azimuth direction needs to be plotted through
the assumed position, then draw an arrow on the end of that line in the
direction of the sun (e.g., if the azimuth = 129°, then on the end that points
toward 129°).
4. Plot the intercept. Starting at the assumed position (AP), plot toward or
away from the sun along the azimuth line and mark.
5. Plot the LOP. The LOP must be perpendicular to the azimuth. Add or
subtract 90° to/from the azimuth. Plot this line through the intercept. Label
one end with “sun” over the line and the time underneath it.