How do you measure how far have you sailed????

Started by Godot, April 09, 2008, 03:22:27 PM

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Godot

I've been trying to figure something out ... I did a quick search and didn't come up with an answer; but I think this may have been covered before.  Apologies in advance.

Often times you will hear someone speak of a cruise or a lifetime of sailing and they will say something like "I've sailed 20,000 miles."

That sounds really impressive; but I wonder how the distance is measured.  I mean, is it the distance between origin and destination?  Is it distance covered over the ground?  And how are folks keeping track?  GPS logs?  Knot meter logs?  Distances between noon sights?  I mean, a really unweatherly boat could theoretically cover 1000 miles sailing from Annapolis to Norfolk, tacking back and forth across the Chesapeake for days on end.

Adam
Bayfield 29 "Seeker"
Middle River, Chesapeake Bay

AdriftAtSea

It's probably based more on actual distance sailed, rather than the distance between ports... Most long-distance sailors keep a log...and the progress they make is recorded on a regular basis in it.
s/v Pretty Gee
Telstar 28 Trimaran
Yet we get to know her, love her and be loved by her.... get to know about My Life With Gee at
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newt

I am not sure what you are asking. If it is to measure actual kt. miles , then a chart was used and the sailing route was charted then logged. (written in a book on a hourly, daily or weekly basis) If you are asking how do you tell how fast you are going, well you need a knotmeter or a rope with a small drouge on one end and knots tied at precise intervals, or a GPS.
If you really want to know how far a mariner has travelled... then you need his favorite drink.
Newt
When I'm sailing I'm free and the earth does not bind me...

Frank

Same way you measure fish. ;) In reality it would most often be based on distances between landfalls although actual 'over the bottom' would very greatly.No one knows actual miles sailed...only educated guessing at best...JMHO.
God made small boats for younger boys and older men

Gus

I have 'tracks' enabled in my GPS. When I get home, I download the tracks in the computer and it calculates the distances for me, its pretty neat.

Gus
s/v Halve Maen
1976 Chrysler 22
North Carolina
www.flickr.com/photos/gus_chrysler22/

CharlieJ

 ;D Yeah- til the track  reaches the end of memory and wraps around, wiping out the first part. We found that out the hard way once on a 30 day cruise.
Charlie J

Lindsey 21 Necessity


On Matagorda Bay
On the Redneck Riviera

Gus

really? I've never been out that many days. I know I have a limited memory in the GPS.

Gus
s/v Halve Maen
1976 Chrysler 22
North Carolina
www.flickr.com/photos/gus_chrysler22/

Godot

Quote from: newt on April 14, 2008, 06:17:49 PM
I am not sure what you are asking. If it is to measure actual kt. miles , then a chart was used and the sailing route was charted then logged. (written in a book on a hourly, daily or weekly basis) If you are asking how do you tell how fast you are going, well you need a knotmeter or a rope with a small drouge on one end and knots tied at precise intervals, or a GPS.
If you really want to know how far a mariner has travelled... then you need his favorite drink.
Newt

It was the first.  Or maybe the last.

I was reading an article online the other day and the bio said something along the lines of "after sailing over 20,000 miles ..." I don't remember the story now; but the bio got me thinking.  If you take a detour south for 600 miles to find the trade winds do you count that detour?  If you lay a-hull for five days to ride out a storm and have to recover several hundred miles do you count that?   If you are making 200 mile tacks as you beat upwind for a couple of weeks, how is that counted?  I suppose it doesn't really matter in the end, I was just trying to figure out how they measure their 20,000 miles (or whatever it was).
Adam
Bayfield 29 "Seeker"
Middle River, Chesapeake Bay

CharlieJ

Most of the voyagers I've ever spoken with measure port to port. They don't count tacks, etc- just miles from seabuoy to seabuoy.

Which is how I'd measure offshore sailing.

Inshore we've always measured port to port, never mind side trips or detours. For instance, on one trip we were forced to make a 10 mile detour off the route for gas- that wasn't counted in the trip distance.
Charlie J

Lindsey 21 Necessity


On Matagorda Bay
On the Redneck Riviera

Auspicious

I measure sea bouy to sea bouy and round up to the next reasonable even amount (10 or 100 miles). If the great circle goes over something big (like Denmark or the UK) I stick a way point in and account for going around.
S/V Auspicious
HR 40 - a little big for SailFar but my heart is on small boats
Chesapeake Bay

Beware cut and paste sailors.

Shipscarver

Grandpa, (who started sailing on a 3 Mast out of Port San Francisco just into his teens), taught me, as a small child,  when a landlubber asks you how far you've sailed, "your answer ain't for a (Gosh Darn) maritime officer."  :D
But,  when a seaman asks you how far you've sailed,  " . . . if it wasn't logged, it's lost in fog." I think that means you should give your logged NM, but, that's sometime a wee bit foggy.  8)
"The great secret that all old people share
is that you really haven't changed . . .
Your body changes, but you don't change at all.
And that, of course, causes great confusion." . . . Doris Lessing

Shipscarver - Cape Dory 27

Pappy Jack

Speaking of foggy, back in my youth I think we measured distance in beers consumed ;D :o ::). Now, in the sober present, I use a GPS.

Fair winds,

Pappy Jack

newt

Quote from: Shipscarver on April 15, 2008, 02:26:50 PM

  " . . . if it wasn't logged, it's lost in fog."
That is a classic. I think everyone just estimates, unless your trying to get your captains lisc. Last guy that asked me that question I told him
"more miles than I care to admit" (and most of those aren't really logged, only remembered as good times)
After all when was the last time you stopped someone at the Bimini dock and said "I just did 200 miles so far this trip, how bout you?" ;D
For most sailors (present company excepted of course)
"if it wasn't logged, it was lost in the grog" ;)
When I'm sailing I'm free and the earth does not bind me...

Shipscarver

Quote from: newt on April 16, 2008, 12:27:05 AM
[
"if it wasn't logged, it was lost in the grog" ;)
[/quote]

Actually, knowing the old man, you may have the more correct quote.  :D

But, he was a bit of a stickler on keeping records of sailings and steamings, that eventually put him around the world before WW1. He also liked to commemorate his travels with a sideshow collection of tattoos from more ports than I could keep track of. My cousin sold his letters (to my grandmother), and journals about his travels, to a Gallic collector for pocket change about 20 years after he died. I think she underestimated their worth.  It wasn't in the money, it was in the reading, and remembering him. Those items were as close as I will every come to understanding what it was like to sail at the cusp of the 19th and the 20th century.   
"The great secret that all old people share
is that you really haven't changed . . .
Your body changes, but you don't change at all.
And that, of course, causes great confusion." . . . Doris Lessing

Shipscarver - Cape Dory 27

s/v Faith

Quote from: s/v godot on April 09, 2008, 03:22:27 PM
I've been trying to figure something out ...

......Often times you will hear someone speak of a cruise or a lifetime of sailing and they will say something like "I've sailed 20,000 miles."....

(bold added)

  It seems to me that some of the replies in the thread have had more to do with specific voyages, rather then the "lifetime of sailing" you refer to in your original post.

  Rose and I pretty much kept our GPS running on the last trip and it recorded the distance... so for the voyage I can be pretty exact.  To have some kind of an idea of a 'lifetime' one would have to have kept pretty good logs.. or maybe just add up significant passages.

  ... I would expect most 'round up' from there.   ;)
Satisfaction is wanting what you already have.