Tom Cunliffe asks 'Do you think you know where you are?' 

"What's it all about? What am I talking about?" I have no idea but I do want you to continue!

Dear Tom, I’m so happy to hear you talk about the essential things in life( on board a ship) 50 years ago when I was studying for the merchant marine we knew how to analog our way through the world. Do these “new” seafarers now about the old ways? If not, they’re f…d when there digital shit goes overboard. In my humble opinion it really is all about seamanship. Thank you for you sharing your wisdom!

I bought a Walker log last year - a "modern" one (circa 1980, a Knotmaster MkIII A) - just to mess about with analogue instruments to get back into the habit of mental dead-reckoning. Next on my wishlist is a half-decent sextant!

You can't beat mark I eyeball !

Tom, this is awesome. Know your GPS basis. If you are in the area of that 1859 - 1902 leadline, you might want to be a bit cautious. GPS says you are fine. Keel says you are grounded.

Wow! Loved this little story so much!

I love you videos. I am working on a Nordic folkboat from 1959, I'm basically learning as I go. When I'm on the way to the docks I like to listen to your videos, always get inspired to get the boat ready for next season so I can join the proud line of wooden sailors :)

Brilliant Tom!! You don’t need to know!! I’m old school and love using old technology. Trouble today is we have lots operating boats, very few are actually sailing them. Their loss. I love sailing into port, maneuvering right up to the string or dock. Many will ask why I didn’t motor up, I smile and say , call me Magellan😎

I love this In 1986 we were sailing from the Pacific Northwest to Hawaii Sextant only of course There were 4 of aboard and for all our 1st time offshore It was a beautiful day, the boat sailing along on a reach and the monitor vane doing such a great job there was little to do but enjoy the ride at that moment The skipper came bounding out of the cabin and half panicked declared that we don't know where we are, which more or less may have been true All I could think is that it had only been a week and was totally relaxed about it We really didn't need to know where we were yet On a 3 week passage if it had been a month or more I might have been concerned We made it to Hawaii in 22 Days

Enjoy you tales and yarns Tom. I come from an even more ancient era and now too old to go sailing and as well the body is falling apart. Very envious of the new wave of young adventurers with all the modern IT, GPS etc. and gadgets making it all too easy. The opportunity was too rare and difficult in my youth. However to add to the 'exact knowing where you' are is the use of satellite pictures and charts, as well as sending out a radio controlled drone to check out reefs and passages in especially difficult locations in the Pacific, otherwise not visible from the mast ladder view point [difficult if sailing short handed].

Tom your videos are absolutely awesome to watch. Your so incredibly interesting with your years of knowledge. Great job keep up the work.

Thank you. Wonderful video.

It matters if you can’t find the pub. 😎

I love your comment about "you never know what you find swimming in the sea".....I cannot resist a giggle....I have all of Winston Churchill's wartime speeches as a set of LPs...on one of them there is a speech he gave to some troops to boost morale...It went something like this …."Well, I have wanted for some time to recount an incident to you which I have been prevented to tell you, but nonetheless I will...I was at sea on a destroyer and saw some debris floating by, and, among this debris was a door, and do you know, it had my initials on it !"

Exactly Tom! I think a DR plot on a chart is important, even with the new GPS. I found that some GPS chart plotters did Not match with paper charts and hand bearing readings in the islands of Belize. The paper charts were based on 100 year old surveys. The GPS chart plotter said we were pin dry land. But in reality not.

Cheers Tom love your videos they are smashing

What a shame you're not navigating us through our current troubled waters Tom. We would be sure to get safely through to the other side. So nice to have your charming company on the way too. Thanks and fair winds.

Thanks Tom. Your videos are wonderfully informative. Thank you.

Such entertaining and enthusiastic commentary from an experienced seafarer - keep up the great work Tom! On all your thousands of nautical miles sailed, how often have you lost the 'impellor' of your Walker Log - perhaps eaten by a fish - does that happen, or is it an urban myth! And secondly, a Walker Log normally stays with a boat, or is part of her gear - how did this one end up in your shed, which vessel did it come from, the old pilot cutter 'Hirta' maybe, perhaps when she was re-fitted with a 'thru-hull' log...? Cheers.

You are so right......as I have found this out the hard way so many times.

Thanks Tom. Looking at charts saying last surveyed by Matthew Flinders lol

Sometimes it is more important to know where you are not - I often use clearing lines when tacking to windward if I have a clear landmarks and charts so much easier ....

Tom, what a pleasant and colorful way about you! I truly enjoy your videos!

Such wise words, as ever. A deep sea capt once advised/said to me; the worst seas he ever encountered were on the Great Lakes and more importantly , the instrument he trusted on board ship more than any other was the ships RADAR. Twice in 10 years I have been lucky enough to use it myself "in anger'' , oh-so-grateful to locate river entrance groins poking seaward from shallowing featureless shorelines after my distance was all run and in bad haze visibility.

Your quote "Nowadays, with GPS we know where we are all the time, but you know we don't, because we're only as good as the chart we're sailing on." is as true in life as in navigation. Thank you

Thanks, Tom. Always a pleasurable listen during a taxing time!!!

Briliant

Good food for thought!

I have a little chuckle every time we get a water bill from a chap who comes round and reads the meter at our front gate in Thailand. His machine prints out the bill which includes the Lat and Long of the meter to 6 decimal places, and I think of the little hand-held Garmin which got me around the south coast of England and across the Channel. They used to say you couldn't rely on that to be within 100 yards, but it was fine for me, and a lot better than the Dinghy Decca which it replaced, and than my dead reckoning, which was rubbish.

Thank you Tom, food for thought and very interesting as always. Very tidy workshops too BTW 😉 Fair winds.

Many thanks indeed - once again - for a great yarn, Tom - from your shed, and from the world of the Walker Log! Can't beat it. Nice brief video at the end there of you aboard a fine craft. You've got a mic and are talking - can't remember that one off hand; have I missed that video! Best wishes, William.

Thank you for the reminder of what is the basics of navigation 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

Hmm....well I remember the bit about "standard port" and then ah that's a good idea, then woke up on the sofa at 0405......

Great stuff as always

As always, good information.💪

I am always amazed at the information you discuss and think what it was like to sail the seas before modern electronic devices. You are great story teller Tom and you have me watching and listening to the end of video wanting more. You 're correct, we all take these modern devices as being accurate and they probably are, but to be able to use those old devices would be an asset. Thank you

Thank you Tom. Very informative.

Wise words Tom

Very true, Tom. I was using a GPS for a land survey back in 2001 and was puzzled by the lack of correspondence with the map, an error of at least 50 metres in the E-W direction was apparent. I tried to ring people I thought might be able to check out their GPS units, as I was convinced it must be the US Navy doing something, but no luck. The next day the error had grown larger and now I was beginning to suspect my GPS unit. One day later and the error was about 200 miles! I tried resetting it and downloading the latest firmware but the error persisted. It was still good for speeds and a few other functions, but positioning was gone. Brought it back to the outdoors shop where I had bought it, and it was expensive too, but the "expert" just switched it on and said "it works, what's your problem!" Cretins....

Perfect back on the day, we ask where to head the navigator use to say Sail fast on that direction stretch his arms and fingers we just had to sail fast. When I was a young lad doing races from port to port! A tilt around the can he was a lot more precise with our headings or when to tack or jibe!

Top info as always Tom ,Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us

Informative and entertaining, as ever. Thanks.

Good episode Mr Tom! That Walker log needs to be displayed alongside a nice Heath sextant.....thx! Andrew

I'm an absolute lubber but with a heritage of seafarers (clipper captains and Severn pilots). Watching this (the first TC vid I've seen), put me in mind of the novel 'The Riddle Of The Sands' which I recently read.

Boatyard what an amazing series cant believe there only 10 episodes

He’s back 🤙

This is so important to know and so well put together it gave me goosebumps! In a new ECN chart you can right click and find the CatZoc (Category Zones of Confidence) and also the date and method used for the survey. In North America you can find 1948 and lead line quite often! Also the Hdop of the GPS is often ignored. When you have only 3 satellites in a cluster with the same inclination and azimut you can easily get an (un)precision of 100 meters!

And someone may have driven a 2CV into the water since the last survey. I’m suspicious even of the Navionics charts updated by boaters recent sonar observations. I wonder if they always calibrate correctly for the depth of their transponders. I hear there are still lots of drunken matelots, even on the Texas waters I go out on very intermittently. My favorite story though, is on the risks of too much accuracy. I hear at least one alleged mariner decided to use the locations of center channel buoys as waypoints. Of course they rammed the first one.

Wisdom

Nice shed and interesting topic Tom.

Fascinating. Thanks! I'm an old seadog and am very familiar with my sextant and Walker log. It's what we had and we did very well. The echo sounder was very handy in a fog.

Tom your turning into a true confession channel. In 1979 the Xxxxx Star was heading south by west a half west. My watch ended and I advised the next keeper that I put the sounder on as sun and celestial positioning was uncertain for the past three days. During my drowsy sleep I was put hard agains my bulkhead wall as the vessel canted hard to port. at 18 kts it was something of a manoeuvre. All the crew off watch would have been awake in their bunks, like me. All settled to a relaxed and regular thud. Next watch we were seen to have A/C because we had been 50 miles further west after 4000 miles since the canaries. Well done BritishMerchant Navy training and well done **** Star marine management for predicting the unexpected.

An engaging video Tom, I'm always on the lookout for sage advice. I don't need a GPS device to tell me which state of confusion I'm in.😁

When I learned to fly we were taught GPS means Global Positioning Second.

A higher hand in it all!

What a brilliant backdrop - I'm admiring your tools, tankards (one for your good self and 4 others for your mates) the bird house, of course the bird (with the bike) and wondering what cars those old number plates used to be attached to. Very enjoyable. Thanks !

Great story Mr Cunliffe, and I love your "shed", it's a class act indeed. (How the dickens do you keep it all so clean? Looks museum-like inside.) As to that Walker's Log, now there's thing of pure beauty. Love it. The question I have is - when the 'fish' is nicely polished up as I've seen some to be, is there no chance that a hulking big marlin or other game fish might come by and take a swipe at it, thinking it's live bait? Just wondered about that, would be really sad to lose your 'the fish' from your log, especially if you were half way across the Atlantic. Perhaps you'd care to comment? Thank you!

More top quality common sense from the master of it :-) Cheers Tom

Hi Tom, a charming film, thanks. I have a couple of Wasp logs, one of them only reads 2 miles. I wondered if you can relieve them of a few thousand miles with a Black And Decker, like a Ford Cortina, but no you can't it does not work..must be genuine 😛

Very engaging presenting style. I hope it's viable for you to keep making these videos longer term

This is has got to be your best instalment yet Tom. I like the GPS, and my chart plotter with its 2010 vintage chip, but I have learned not to trust it too much, with Rocks in lower zooms.....! I have sailed over rocks that were supposed to dry according to it But I've never trusted the depth due to what you have just said about when and how the surveys were carried out, I hadn't really thought about the hard stuff being in the wrong (right) place, I'm pleased to say I've not hit a shed yet. Great stuff.

Informative and entertaining as ever Tom, but I kept getting distracted trying to place the British-twin head gasket that was peeking over your shoulder... Triumph 750?

epic. grateful for your sharing! ~__/)__*

Come on ol' Tom, give us some more stories 'n' tales of the sea. Some of us old sea dogs have run-aground on 'retirement village reef' and losing our sea legs.

good thoughts Tom of course when the tech goes wrong just hope one has paid attention when learning the old way. Picking up on your vlog about sea sickness I used to teach canoeing sailing( dinghys) etc and going out in a force 4 in a sea kayak to learn rescues and such no probs bobbing like a cork, however getting on big boats different matter lol

I would give up a lotto winning to sail around the world with Tom.

Believe it or not, for the first 5 minutes of your video I was really asking myself: Is he telling me to make use of my old Sum-Log again? My boat is from 1975 and still is equipped with this nice mechanical instrument. I am glad I followed your explanations to the end of the video. Thank you for very useful information on charts and accuracy. (Love your shed, too!)

Hi Tom, its a bugbear of mine that we do not seem to be able to find the survey data on the electronic charts. For example on Navionics it would be useful to see that little Survey chartlet somewhere. If it's there I can't find it. As you say its an optimist or a gambler who uses it to navigate too precisely, tempting as it might be. Love the videos

Tom, Don't for get to put your website in the notes, we all need a North Star to find it! Cheers Warren

Hate to disappoint but the NZ Navy has just completed a comprehensive charting of our pacific neighbours, replacing in some cases charts drawn by some bloke called J Cook.

I seem to remember on my chart of Alderney there were areas last surveyed in the 1800's still pretty accurate for the visible rocks but you needed your wits about you working close inshore. A tip my dear old Dad gave me was to aim deliberately off to one side of the port you are aiming for when the viz is poor. This came in really handy when trying to find the entrance to Lymington in the fog as one bit of marsh looks the same as the other, at least you knew which way to turn when you spotted it.

Hi Tom. Is your workshop gimballed? I was very confused by the view out of the window behind your left elbow as it seemed to be moving? No, I've not been at the rum! Always distracted by the old parts in your 'shed', like the 'bonnie' head gasket etc.

I would be interested in your views on calculating the "Circle of uncertainty" when plotting dead reckoning - thanks.

Hello Im a newbie sailor! Ive done many things but have a burning desire to sail around our entire coastline at 62yrs. You inspire my can do attitude. Ps is that a triumph or similar twin head gasket hanging up behind you Regards Stuart Bell

At the end of your compelling video, you're steering while sitting on the leeward side: is it because of the circumstances or because of a personal preference from which we might learn something? Thanks!

Get on me old fruit ,Cheers me dears Richard Plymouth🇬🇧👍

do the gps charts have the info on them about when that part of the chart was surveyed?

but that's why they had a lead and line with tallow(?) on the lead. gave depth and type of bottom..... shale, sand, rocks etc. of course, with sailboats of not more than 8ft of draught who cares. would love to hear you talk about this :-)

i thought the charts on the GPS were satellite images

GPS on mobile phones is land based.. Even GPS at sea is reliant on HAP's. ( High Arial Platforms).

Thanks Tom. I bet it took you a good while to figure out how to tell this so clearly: so easy to come over as a befuddled story. But you cracked it. Well done; clear and not a wasted word. BTW for some reason it brings to mind Heisenberg’s Uncertainly Principle. In case you don’t recall it... it says that the more exactly you try to measure something, the more the act of measuring it interferes with the thing you measuring and so changing it. All about sub-atomic physics, but the idea’s interesting and had parallels. For example, if a copper’s trying to measure the speed of passing cars, and tries to get a precise measurement by, say, using big kit and a tripod and on a straight bit of road, then the drivers will see him and change their speed. But if the copper settles for a less accurate measurement, then the drivers may not see him and not change their speed. The point of all this is... if you want to know something (e.g. lat/long, how many people attended an event, how many died of C-19) you must first decide how accurate you want the answer to be. High accuracy is expensive and interferes with the answer, so should be saved for where it’s really necessary. Real world example 1: the degradation of GPS accuracy for open use. Real world example 2: how accurate is a car’s speedometer? Clearly they’re not super-accurate as that would be super expensive (and have to cater for the wear of the tyres etc.). But they need to be cheap and accurate enough to (a) avoid the manufacturer being sued for lots of owners getting tickets due to a misleading speedo, and (b) give a decent idea of speed. The answer: everyday car speedos under-read vehicle speed by between 3% and 8%.

That looked like an old Iphone 4S... Surely not in 2020! haha

Hands up who has sailed into port with the log still out behind

This turned into the 4 yorkshiremen scetch at around the two and a half minute mark.

I was sure you were going to say, "what you have to ask yourself is, 'are you feeling lucky punk?'"

But was there a trick for retrieving the line without it twirling itself into a Gordian Knot the size of a volleyball as the fish would keep spinning until you could bring the thing aboard? I never discovered a way other than coming to a stop. And even then....

💪🗺👍

So it would be the same on the lakes Tom? Bloody hell there could be a rock were it shouldn't be...

Great bit of practical advice . heard you had covid 19 ?

Tom, Have you anything made on cat rig yachts?

There are plenty of stories of people coming unstuck with satnavs on land. Always trust your eyes, ha, ha. Keep well Tom.

Where am I? That's easy, I'm half way up the stairs. What I want to know is, am I going or have I been?

GPS, its for the military.

And the story right behind you on the number plate?

Shed Man speaks

PXL 405 WAS THAT YOUR BIKE SIR

The interesting fact about GPS is .... Who owns it? It is a proprietary property. Most people don't realise how quickly it can be turned OFF. Now what are you going to do? Hint; Google .. The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. Now question is ; What the H... Is United States Space Force? Hey Tom... Can I please buy your sextant, Log, dividers etc etc NB. Always good to have spares. ;)

Erm... Oh great one? I can be within 15 meters of a turn of the century lead line drunken survey or I can be + or - a quarter of a mile of the same survey?! I think I'd be safest though, if you were in the cockpit with me...... THEN it wouldn't be that irrelevant.

The Walker Log reminds me of the Bill Tillman story of ten knots and a Chinaman. I tried to look up the saying because I wasn't sure if the ten knots bit. The saying isn't on there, probably been removed because of the PC brigade, anyway I'll let you tell the story..

'Surveyed' and 'surveyor' are stressed on the second syllable.