Yachting: Sailing From Lankawi to Phuket: Part 2

I didn't only have competent crew duties I also navigated, from island to island in the Andaman sea. My sisters also liked doing it so we rotated each day. There are three main things you have to use and find out while you are navigating:

1. Sea Charts
2. GPS
3. Course to Steer

• Sea Charts:

On sea charts you can see if there are any hazards in the water that you cannot see from above, if there are any rocks or hazards you have to tell the skipper where the hazards are. Depth lines is an other thing you can see on sea charts, you see when and where the water gets very shallow and very deep. You can see land and how far it can spread out.

• GPS:

When you are navigating you have to know your position the GPS tells you your longitude and latitude position. Once you find out your position on the sea chart you can give your skipper a course to steer. I check every 20min to see where we are, how fast we are going and to see how far we are from our destination.

• Course to Steer:

Once you find out your position on the chart you can make a course to steer. Sometimes the wind might not be with us causing some lee way, so you have to head up. The current sometimes will be helping us or be against us.