The thing that fooled me the most, is that the waterfall trace moves a small bit in the opposite direction during the turn, before the real swing to the new bearing. That's something to be aware of. But at the same time it can help to make a quicker resolve, if you reverse the logic. ..... Oh yeah, you wanted that logic in the first place. Got to do that now.
Time for your daily excercise:
It helped me alot to visualise the situation by stretching out both my arms infront of me and to the side, representing the two bearings. One hand is the real contact (choose which and put something small in the palm of your hands for better effect), the other hand is the ambiguous contact (thuss empty), but both have the same angle towards your front/nose.
Now, imagine you don't know which hand is the real contact, and you decide to simply turn port/left-side for lack of another reason. So you are about to turn your body(ownship) towards your left hand, let's say halve-way. But your 'true hand' must stay in the direction it had in the room. (let it rest on something like a table) Now the 'ambiguous hand' must respond to that by matching the new angle of the 'true hand' to your new front direction. (but on opposite side of your body ofcourse) It may feel a bit clumsy at first but it will work.
Now, comes the crunch!
Did you turn away from the 'true hand'? Then the 'true hand' was you right/starboard hand. So the 'true hand' was opposite the turn direction. And this is shown in the waterfall as a dropping trace, or opening the angle on your front/bow. (well, as the first paragraph explains, ... eventually) Dropping means contactbearing is opposite the direction of the turn.
Or, did you turn towards the 'true hand'? Then the true hand was your left/port hand (as the direction was chosen left). And is shown in the waterfall as a rising trace, which is closing the angle to your front/bow. Rising means contact bearing is same side as direction of the turn. (again here, .... eventually)
I hope that works for you.
p.s. try not to make a turn bigger than the angle of the contact to your bow, or the bearings may get 'entangled' on your bow. Very confussing
Last edited by Pisces; 07-07-08 at 11:30 AM.
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