Imagine sailing in the middle of the Baltic Sea:
What happens when the GNSS signal drops, the chart plotter freezes, or you simply want to practice the art of traditional seamanship without the inaccuracies of a blunt pencil?
In the world of modern offshore sailing, we have become dangerously dependent on a blue dot on our screens. But true navigation starts when the electronics fail.
In the era of ubiquitous GNSS availability, traditional terrestrial navigation is often regarded as a relic of the past. However, recent increases in signal interference, jamming, and the inherent risks of electronic single-points-of-failure have renewed interest in "back-to-basics" navigation. While the methods of the 18th century remain valid, their manual execution on paper charts introduces significant "human error"—where a mere 0.5mm pencil line can represent a 25-meter deviation in reality.
This presentation introduces a specialized, "seaworthy" QGIS plugin designed to digitize and refine the process of nautical position fixing. The tool allows mariners to perform traditional cross bearings and dead reckoning with the geometric precision of a GIS, effectively eliminating the mechanical inaccuracies of manual plotting.