🔍 Key Concepts

• Relative motion between own ship and the hurricane’s eye (treat the hurricane like another moving vessel) • How to draw a relative motion diagram using vectors for both speeds and courses • The idea that maximum CPA is achieved when your relative motion line just passes clear of the danger point

💭 Think About

• How do you plot the hurricane’s motion vector (speed and course) from the hurricane’s current position, and then convert that into a relative motion vector as seen from your ship? • If you can choose any course at 12 knots, what relative motion direction (from your ship to the hurricane) would give you the greatest miss distance, rather than aiming toward or directly away from it? • Among the answer choices, which course places your track line on the plotting sheet so that the hurricane’s position at closest approach is farthest away from you?

✅ Before You Answer

• Be sure to convert both your ship’s and the hurricane’s courses and speeds into vectors on the same scale before comparing them. • Verify which trial course causes the relative motion line from the hurricane to pass at the greatest perpendicular distance (CPA) from your own ship’s position. • Check that the chosen course does not produce a collision course or a rapidly decreasing bearing with the hurricane’s eye.