One of the key ingredients of successful on-water navigation is piloting, the ability to determine position and progress using fixed points as references. By knowing your position relative to some easily identifiable feature like a water tower, a navigational marker or some obvious point on the shoreline, you can figure out your actual speed and whether the conditions are helping or hindering your progress. Your paddling skills will grow along with your enjoyment once you are able to use piloting to establish your course and choose the best heading to compensate for conditions.
(Which brings up a couple other specific terms that we should get together on before moving forward: in navigational terms, our course is simply the direction in which we are traveling. From A to B, from one location to another. We can draw a line on the chart between two points and call that our course. Our heading, on the other hand, is the direction in which our boat is pointed. Because of the effects of wind and currents, our heading and our course are very often not the same, especially when crossing an area of strong moving water. The difference between heading and course is measured in degrees and is referred to as the ferry angle.)
Think about the way a crab moves across the sand. Her tracks may indicate that she moves in a straight line but it is obvious that she is pointed in a different direction than she is actually moving. Her orientation is one way and her direction of travel is another. The same principle applies to sea kayaks, especially on salt water where we are affected by wind and current, often in combination. These elemental forces require some thought and skill to traverse and it helps to be able to understand that straight lines are often neither possible nor desirable.
Picture it this way: You are on one side of a mile-wide passage and your destination is on the other side, directly opposite your position. If there is no wind and no current moving through, you could simply get in your boat and point it directly at your destination, confident that you would get there in about 20 minutes.
If there is a current, however, let’s say about 3 knots or so, moving from left to right across your route, that’s when it all needs to come together. Your course may not change much – you would still like to track a fairly consistent line toward your destination – but you will need to turn your bow to the left into the current and paddle an angled route into the moving water in order to hold to the course. You will know when you’re paddling on the correct ferry angle by looking at your destination and watching it as you get closer, adjusting your heading to match the flow of the current. That’s piloting.
Because the speed of the current changes at various points during a crossing, the ferry angle needs to be adjusted as well. One helpful trick is to turn into the current a little more than necessary at the start of a crossing, to begin with a wider ferry angle. This allows you to use a little more energy at the start of the crossing in order to set up an easier finish, as you travel in more of an arc than a straight line. By using piloting to keep up with your progress, you’ll be able to see how you’re doing, even out in the middle of the route where there are no immediate landmarks.
Then there are the times when you may not be making a crossing but are simply going with the current. It’s a great feeling to be using the power of the water to help move you on your way and it’s fun to try to read the surface, to figure out where the maximum benefit might be. The biggest concern in these conditions is the wind. If it’s blowing in the opposite direction of the current, the chop gets larger and standing waves can form in the rips offshore. This opposition of wind and current creates some of the most treacherous conditions for sea kayakers and it’s good to know your options for coping with them.
Because wind conditions can change quickly and bad can turn to worse in a matter of minutes, it’s generally a good idea to get closer to land before things deteriorate. If you can get in tight to the shoreline, you can often use the topography to shield yourself from the worst of the wind and it will be easier to pick out specific points along the way to measure your progress as you go.
While getting in the lee of the land can be helpful for escaping the wind, it is also possible that at this point, the current may no longer be your friend. Back eddies that form close to shore feature localized currents that can often be quite powerful and most unhelpful, and it is during these times when you may have to work harder than usual to get where you want to go. Using piloting skills can provide you with real-time feedback on how you are doing and how you might be able to do better.
By continually updating where you are and the speed at which you are going, your paddling will get better. The attentiveness that piloting requires pays off in a better awareness of what needs to happen throughout a paddling day. With practice, things like the setting of ferry angles will become second-nature and the added efficiency will make for a more enjoyable experience, no matter where you paddle.
—by Ken Campbell