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

[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.

[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.

[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

[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.

[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

[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.

[Gus]

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

Gus

[Godot]

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).

[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.

[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.

[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)

[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]

  " . . . 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" ;)

[Shipscarver]

[

"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.   

[s/v Faith]

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.   ;)