Navigation in real life

[BigWalleye]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

One area related to celestial navigation DID influence the Captain and we have no analog in the game. That area is error mitigation.

If you are especially good with a sextant, and if your clocks are bang on, your error on a small boat or submarine would likely be in the range of 50 miles. So if you're headed to a port do you sail right at it?

No, you don't. Suppose the port is on a north-south coastline and you navigate straight to it. Here comes the land and......what the hay? No port. Okay, hotshot, which way do we turn? Flip a coin. Ask the exec. Spin a bottle. Doesn't matter if you used a modern computer, its answer would conform to Murphy's law--you turn the wrong way.

The correct way to plot a course is to purposely steer a bit further to the north or south than the size your error envelope. If you are within plus or minus 50 miles, then aim 50 miles north. Either you see the port as you approach or you know you must turn south. Error envelopes change with sea conditions, the length of time since the last valid sighting, skill of the navigator.......

That's what you do whenever you are not sure of the exact position of your vessel. Which, pre-GPS, was pretty much any time you were out of sight of land.