🔍 Key Concepts

• Difference between course steered and course made good when there is a current • How to treat current as a vector with a set (direction) and drift (speed) and combine it with your ship’s motion • Using a current triangle (or vector triangle) to find the resulting course over ground

💭 Think About

• Sketch your own current triangle: which way is your ship pointing and how long is that vector compared to the current vector? • Is the set of the current (082°T) pushing you to the east, west, north, or south relative to your original course of 000°T? • Once you add the current vector to your ship’s vector, does your new track over the ground get deflected to the right (east) or to the left (west) of 000°T, and by a small angle or a large one?

✅ Before You Answer

• Make sure you are using true courses consistently (all angles are true), and not mixing relative bearings • Compare the size of the current (1.1 knots) to your speed (9.5 knots) – this tells you whether the course change will be small or large • Check the direction of set: a current set 082°T generally pushes your ground track toward the east side of your original heading, not the west