1. Practice Cruise Planning
Global Navigation
Chapter 9

2. Introduction
This Practice Cruise will provide a review of the entire course and help you prepare for the course exam.

3. Practice Cruise - Planning
Materials Needed
To complete this portion of the Practice Cruise, you will need:
VPP2 and OpenCPN software installed on your computer, as well as all the charts that you were instructed to load in Chapter 8; if for some reason you’ve removed these charts, reload them for this Practice Cruise). You will also need a printing capability on your computer.
A folder or small binder that can serve as your Navigator’s notebook which you’ll need throughout this voyage.

4. Planning
You and three of your Power Squadron friends have talked about taking an offshore cruise from your home area of Seattle, WA to Honolulu, HI, for years, and you’re all finally ready to make this trip during the upcoming cruising season. The four of you have sailed together on shorter cruises in the past on one of the member’s 50 ft multi-hulled sailboat, Ocean Passage; you’re all very compatible and have a good knowledge of sailing. The captain of the Ocean Passage has asked you to be the navigator on this offshore cruise, since you’ve recently completed the Power Squadron Junior Navigation and Navigation courses, as well as all of the elective courses.
You’re happy to take on that duty and plan to use all of the navigation skills you’ve learned on this cruise.

5. Planning (continued)
He’s subscribed to a weather service that can provide weather information either via the SSB or internet connection, and has a 406 MHz Emergency Position
Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) that’s been properly registered with NOAA and stored on the boat. The boat is also outfitted with a safety harness and a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) for each crew member, which each member will wear whenever topside on the boat.
The captain of Ocean Passage has outfitted the boat for an offshore cruise, including a laptop with the Visual Passage Planner 2 (VPP2) and OpenCPN software packages, a ‘receive only’ Automatic Identification System (AIS), GPS, autopilot, and radar, and he’s integrated all these tools into the OpenCPN software. He also has a good complement of marine communications equipment onboard: a DSC-VHF radio for near- shore communications, and a Single Side Band (SSB) radio with the required license, a satellite internet capability and satellite telephone for well-offshore communications.

6. Planning (continued)
Now, as navigator for the cruise, you’re ready to start planning some of the cruise details. Based on the weather conditions in the area of your home port, Seattle, you plan to wait until at least the month of May to leave; you also have commitments back home in the fall, so you don’t want to start the cruise after August.
Since you know your local waters in the Seattle area, you don’t need a detailed cruise plan to navigate from your marina to your point of departure. Reviewing the charts of your area, you determine you’ll start the voyage from Port Angeles, on the Washington state side of the Straits of Juan de Fuca. Once you clear the straits, you note that Cape Flattery will be a good point of departure for the offshore cruise; you plan to use L 48° 24.0' N, Lo 124° 45.0' W as your official point of departure.

7. Question 1-a
Using VPP2, start planning the cruise from the Straits of Juan de Fuca, (L 48°24.0' N, Lo 124°45.0' W) to Honolulu, HI. Create a new passage in VPP2 and enter your departure and destination waypoints; save this new passage as “Straits-Honolulu”.
a. Record the following information provided by VPP2 :
1.a.1. Great Circle distance and heading from WP1 to WP2:
2 270 nm et 236°
Solution 1.a : Hover the cursor over WP1 and read values in pop-up window.
1.a.2. Rhumb line distance and heading from WP1 to WP2:
2 281 nm et 225°

8. Question 1 b
Based on this initial data on the route, would you choose to take the Great Circle route or the rhumb line route to Honolulu? Why?
Answer: Rhumb line route, since the difference in distance between the two routes is minimal; consequently the continual change in heading to maintain the Great Circle route would not result in much of an advantage. 

9. Question 2
Once you set up the Vessel Profile, you review the “Vessel Speed Profile” report created by VPP2. You confirm that the information you entered is correct. Print out the “Vessel Speed Profile” report and maintain it in your Navigator’s notebook.
You check the Speed Graph for a typical boat of this size, and determine with the captain that the boat performs reasonably close to the graphs listed. You decide not to modify any of these speed graphs, and will run the simulations using these parameters.
Solution 2: See ‘Vessel Speed Profile’ report.
Before you can investigate various optimized courses in VPP2, you need to create a Vessel Profile for Ocean Passage. You decide to use 100% of the boat’s predicted speed in the simulations, and that the minimum speed you want to run before turning on the engines is 2.0 kn. The captain’s records on fuel consumption tell you that Ocean Passage uses an average 1.5 gallons of fuel per hour when the engines are running. Set this vessel profile for Ocean Passage as your default.

10. Question 3
Answer :The wind and currents for the months of May and June take you on a more southerly route, keeping the vessel closer to the west coast of the US for the initial part of the cruise; the winds and currents in July and August appear to take you on more of a straight-line course to Honolulu, resulting in a route that’s approximately 100 nm less than the May or June routes..
Hint: Start with the “Straits-Honolulu” passage, run the simulation for the month of May, save the passage as “Straits-Hon May” and close that passage. Now, open the “Straits-Honolulu” passage again (it has only the initial and destination waypoints), run the simulation again but this time for the month of June, and save this passage as “Straits-Hon June”. Repeat this procedure for July and August.
After running the optimization routine for each of the four months of interest and saving
an optimized route for each month, open the four saved passages so they all appear on the
VPP2 screen at the same time, and compare the proposed routes.
Save one optimized route for each of these four months, identifying the route by the month – e.g., “Straits-Hon May”. Before saving each route, add a Note to Waypoint 1 that indicates the month of that route, so you can easily identify the route when it is displayed on your screen.
Run several simulations of the proposed voyage – at least one for each of the months of May, June, July, and August. For each simulation, have VPP2 insert 10 new waypoints and simulate 10 routes for 25 iterations. Since you’re not on a tight schedule to get to Hawaii and Ocean Passage is “average” in its ability to handle high waves, leave the slide centered between these two parameters in the “Route Optimization” window.
With the departure and destination waypoints entered, and the Vessel Profile set, your next step is to use the pilot chart data of VPP2 to help you decide when the best time might be to make this voyage, based on wind and current data.
You meet with the other members of the cruise and discuss the outputs of the VPP2 planning software. After much discussion, you all decide to leave near the end of June rather than waiting until July – the winds and currents aren’t expected to be a problem in June, and this earlier departure works better for some members of the crew.
Answer 3.b: July or August, since the prevailing winds and currents take you on a route that
is more direct.
3.b.:Based on the results of these optimized routes, which month would you chose to start the
voyage?
a) What general conclusions can you draw from seeing these optimized routes for the four
months of interest?

11. Question 4 4.c.: What is the average expected percentage of
time the wind is calm?
4.d.: What is the average set and drift of the
prevailing current in this area?
4.e.: What is the magnetic variation at WP1?
4.b. through 4.e. :
Solution : The values for answers 4.b. through 4.e. are read from the data panel on the computer
screen, with the cursor hovered on or very near WP1.
Print the “Passage Summary Report” for any one of the June optimized routes, and file it in your Navigator’s notebook.
You decide to check the average wind and current during the month of June at your point of departure from the Straits of Juan de Fuca, as well as the magnetic variation (variation is always rounded to the nearest whole degree). Zoom in on WP1 and review the data
panel in the VPP2 window.
In the immediate area of WP1:
4.b.: What is the average expected percentage of
time the wind blows from the west, and at
what force?
Run several iterations of VPP2’s Optimization Routine for the month of June; notice that waypoints for the legs of these routes vary. Remember that a slightly different optimized route results every time an optimization is run on a given pair of waypoints, and that while the routes may differ slightly, the same average conditions should be encountered on the simulated voyage.
4.a.: answer
Non-Optimized: approx days; wave height approx. 4.6 ft.
4.a.: Optimized: approx days; wave height approx 4.5 ft.
4.a.:Record the VPP2 projected time and wave height for both the non-optimized route and
optimized route for one of these optimizations.
After the crew meeting, you return to the task of planning the voyage to Hawaii
4.c.: Answer:
7% of the time.
4.d.: Answer:
38% of the time the current sets to the SE at 0.5 kn.
4.e.: Answer:
17° E, on the day you are checking this value in VPP2.
Solution 4.a.: When the Optimization routine is run, this information appears in the window at the
end of the routine.
4.b. Answer :
30% of the time from the west, F3

12. Question 4 - f Solution: See ‘Passage Summary Report”. 1 48°24,0’N
Waypoint #
Latitude
Longitude 1
48°24,0’N
124°45,00’W 2
44°44,01’N
128°07,00’W 3
40°54,83’N
130°08,27’W 4
37°51,93’N
132°14,77’W 5
36°29,30’N
135°04,01’W 6
34°47,49’N
138°18,46’W 7
32°54,82’N
140°27,22’W 8
30°48,05’N
142°33,47’W 9
28°54,01’N
144°46,55’W 10
26°42,94’N
147°10,42’W 11
24°02,52’N
152°41,85’W 12
21°18,00N
157°52,00’W
Since any of these optimized routes for the month of June should result in the same average conditions on the voyage, you decide on one route. You will export the route to use in OpenCPN during the offshore cruise.
Select one of your June optimized routes. Edit the waypoints of your selected route to match the waypoints in the table, below.
Hint: From the menu bar, select Edit/Waypoint List, or press F2. After editing all the waypoint coordinates, click ‘Save and Exit’ at the bottom of the “Edit Waypoint” window.
Zoom in on the VPP2 route and examine the route closely. Does any segment of this revised route run over land? If so, where?
After editing your waypoint list, print the “Passage Summary Report” for this revised June route, note on the report this is the list of waypoints you’ll export to OpenCPN and file it in your Navigator’s notebook.
You decide to leave the VPP2 route as is, and will correct the route in OpenCPN as you get closer to that area.
Solution: See ‘Passage Summary Report”.
Answer: The last leg, from WP11 to WP12 going into Honolulu, runs over land.

13. Question 4 - g For this revised June route:
What is the approximate rhumb line distance for the voyage?
Answer : nm
Elapsed time to complete the voyage?
Answer : 10,3 days
Solution: See ‘Passage Summary Report” – values taken from this report (see question 4 f.

14. Question 5-a
a.:From the pilot chart data in VPP2, what are the expected weather conditions for Leg 1 of the voyage for
You decide to generate a few more reports on your finalized route before exporting these waypoints to OpenCPN. Print the “Weather Conditions Report” and the “Vessel Performance Report” for Leg 1 of this voyage, and file them in your Navigator’s notebook.
Solution : See “Weather Conditions Report”5a MI
Average Wave Height:
Answer: 4,5 feet
Average Sea Temperature:
55,4°F
Average Air Temperature:
55,8°F

15. Question 5 -b
From the “Vessel Performance Report” for Leg 1, note your expected:
Time to complete Leg 1:
Average Boat Speed:
Average Wind Speed:
Percentage of time you can expect to be
Close reaching:
Answer: 1,2 day
Solution : See “Vessel Performance Report”
9,3 knots
13,1 knots
100%

16. Question 6
Examine your OpenCPN route closely for dangerous areas or areas to avoid
Do you find problems with any part of the route?
Display your route to Honolulu in OpenCPN on a chart so that the entire route can be viewed. Print a copy of this route, and file in your Navigator’s notebook.
Hint: To print a OpenCPN chart, from the menu bar, click on the printer icon. The chart view OpenCPN displays on your screen at the time is the same view that will be printed, so be sure you are zoomed in (or out) and centered as you want the chart to be printed. You can adjust the desired settings for your printer from your printer control panel.
Now you’re ready to export the route you developed in VPP2 to OpenCPN. Save this newly-created OpenCPN route as “Straits to Honolulu”.
Hint: Export the VPP2 route in GPX format; (click File and “Export Passage As”). Save the file in a folder whose location you know. Launch Open CPN, import the route from this GPX file into OpenCPN using the Route Manager.
Answer : a. Only on the last leg that takes you
into Honolulu, as identified in VPP2. You will adjust that route as you get closer to your destination.
Solution : See print out of OpenCPN route. Student routes should be similar.

17. Question 7
You’re now done with the part of voyage planning that you set out to accomplish. Since you won’t be leaving on this offshore cruise until the end of June, you file away your Navigator’s notebook until you get closer to the time of departure, and start work on getting ready for other aspects of the voyage.

18. Practice Cruise End of Planning
Global Navigation
Chapter 9