Mercator Sailing

'On a clear night, you could never lose the stars,

and with them you could never be truly lost'

(David Baldacci)

Hi and welcome to my Mercator App.

In 1946 Harold Getty wrote a book named 'The Raft Book'. His aim was to write a manual for 'LifeBoat Navigation'. A manual that all ships would carry in their lifeboats. The manual would assist navigators who had the misfortune to have to abandon ship and find their way to land.

The story inspired me to design an app that would be available to everyone who would ever be in the same unfortunate circumstances, or for those who had the misfortune, for some reason, to be without a GPS.

I decided to design the app to incorporate some of the methods the Polynesians used and also to design some method to find land without the aid of a 'real' sextant.

Most importantly, the app had to be useful for beginners and for the mariners who thrive on a challenge of navigating without GPS or proper instruments.

The first thing about navigation is keeping track of where you come from and where you are going to.

The Mercator App does these two calculations: Mercator Sailing and Dead Reckoning.

Other Apps: The Polynesians Way: Starfinder and Subpoint calculations. The Harp: as a simple (emergency) altitude measuring tool.