🔍 Key Concepts

• Relative motion between your vessel and a fixed object when on a constant course • How bearings to a fixed aid to navigation change when you are left or right of track • Difference between being set to the right/left and choosing to maneuver (altering course or speed)

💭 Think About

• Sketch your track line on 250°T and plot Cape Henry Light. If your course is 250°T and the light bears 250°T at 2300, where are you in relation to the light and your intended track? • Between 2300 and 2326 the bearing changes from 250°T to 252°T. For a fixed object, does an increasing bearing mean it is passing ahead, astern, to port, or to starboard? • If you are being set by current, how would that show up in your series of bearings: would the light appear to move toward your bow or toward your beam, and on which side?

✅ Before You Answer

• Confirm whether an increasing relative bearing to starboard (from 250°T to 252°T) means the object is moving forward or aft on that side of the ship • Check if your course (250°T) being nearly equal to the first observed bearing (250°T) implies you are on a collision course, passing abeam, or overtaking the light’s position line • Decide whether a set to the right would cause the light’s bearing to increase or decrease over time for a vessel on 250°T