Navigation 3

Terrestrial Navigation 2
Course and Bearing
What is course and bearing in relation to navigation?

Bearing is the angle between any two points, whereas course is your
intended path of travel to your destination.
What is Course in navigation term?

A course is your planned paddling route. It’s usually marked on a map,

although you can also just make a mental note. A course can be a straight
line going from your point of departure to your destination, or it might
consist of two or more legs.
In navigation, the course of a watercraft or aircraft is the cardinal direction
 in which the craft is to be steered. The course is to be distinguished from
the heading, which is the compass direction in which the craft's bow or nose
is pointed.
The path that a vessel follows over the ground is called a ground track
, course made good or course over the ground. For an aircraft it is simply
its track. The intended track is a route. For ships and aircraft, routes are
typically straight-line segments between waypoints. A navigator determines
the bearing (the compass direction from the craft's current position) of the
next waypoint.
 Cardinal Direction

The four cardinal directions, or cardinal points, are the four main compass

 directions: north, east, south, and west, commonly denoted by their initials
N, E, S, and W respectively. East and west are perpendicular (at right angles)
to north and south, with east being in the clockwise direction of rotation
from north and west being directly opposite east.
Intercardinal directions

The ordinal directions (also called the intercardinal directions) are northeast

(NE), southeast (SE), southwest (SW), and northwest (NW). The intermediate
direction of every set of intercardinal and cardinal direction is called
a secondary intercardinal direction, the eight shortest points in the 
compass rose that is shown to the right (e.g. NNE, ENE, and ESE).
What is Bearing?

A bearing is the direction from your location to any distant point given in
degrees from north. If you point your compass at a distant lighthouse and the
compass reads 56 degrees, then the bearing to the lighthouse is 56 degrees.
Read bearings in either true or magnetic.
Course Bearing

The course bearing is the bearing you’ll follow to stay on a leg of a course.
For example, the course bearing from “B” to “C” is 71 degrees true and 75
degrees magnetic. The course bearing from “C” to “D” is 30 degrees true
and 34 degrees magnetic. To follow a bearing, point your kayak so your
compass reads the course bearing and then paddle while keeping your
compass pointed at that bearing.  When marking a course bearing on your
chart, you can mark true, magnetic or both. Stay consistent or label the
bearings. You can also mark a back bearing, which is the bearing to take if
traveling the course in the opposite direction. The back bearing is always
180 degrees away from your bearing. While marking bearings on your chart,
adding distance saves time later.
What is the difference between true bearing, relative bearing and heading?
Thank you