Kiel canal waypoints
 

My third question,

What has happened to the preset waypoints for Kiel canal outbound?

I'm in my third career from Kiel and although the preset waypoints work fine inbound on the oubound journey they turn sharply starboard after the first high bridge turn East and the end up somewhere in central Poland. It's tedious having to set them all by hand.

A warning: don't trust the inbound course waypoints blindly. I collided with another, stationary, ship because the course came a little too close to the bank! Now I adjust the points after I inspect them.
Is there ant way to set a course and then save it for future use?

Outbound: Plotting the course (using the preset) should be the very first thing you should do before your boat moves off. And it won't work if use the start at sea option in SH3 Commander.

Inbound: you need to have your last waypoint hit exaclty on the green dot that says Kaiser Wilhelm Kanal Einpunkt (or something like that, I don't really look at what it actually says anymore), you may need to zoom in your map to be sure your on it. then ask for the inbound preset.

doing these things the only problems I have had are....
failing to tell my Nav to follow the plotted course and running into the opposite side of the harbour whilst making a cup of tea.
and nearly hitting a ship that had drifted right into the middle of the canal

hope this works for you.

For the outbound, the course must be selected and activated before your boat has moved at all. Otherwise it will base its course off your current position, not the starting point.

I used those once, and never again. I like plotting my course and watching the scenery go by. Which is not to say I don't use TC - I just come out of it when I reach the last point I plotted and then do the next screen.

TC near land shouldn't exceed 64. If your in a hurry go the long way around at Standard speed. Negligible fuel use. They wanted to get to the front FAST.

They watched fuel consumption when they reached patrol area.

Some exceptions apply. :DL

I have mine set to 128. On the other hand, for "them" fast meant using the Canal, which was why it was built in the first place.

The ideal solution would be to have the 'Start At Sea' option place you just off Brunsbuttel, and a return option that considered Brunsbuttel to be close enough to teleport you back to Kiel without penalty.

Wouldn't it be possible to change the coordinates that Commander uses for "start at sea" to do just that? I think this came up in another discussion about the canal recently.

If you're not playing 100% realism teleporting back from there wouldn't be a problem anyway, would it?

I would think so, but I'm hardly an expert.

Since the renown for returning home doesn't work anyway, probably not. Those of us who insist on sailing everywhere will continue to do so anyway.

Always select 'Follow Waypoint' as quick as possible or you will overun the nearest waypoint and your boat will attempt to correct the error but more than likely collide with a moored vessel or a harbour wall.

TC4
 

... Is absolutely brutal

That's why we reset it to 128.

Saved halfway through the canal and changed to TC64
 

It was tolerable. I start out at sea so I had to manually plot. I'll probably just stick to sailing around Denmark.