Your vessel is entering port and you have...

Your vessel is entering port and you have...

Question 1 of 2707066636ee928f7522a1c51a5db

Your vessel is entering port and you have steadied up on a range, dead ahead, in line with your keel. After a few minutes the range, still dead ahead, appears as shown in illustration D047NG below. Which action should you take?

Question 1 of 27070

Q

Your vessel is entering port and you have steadied up on a range, dead ahead, in line with your keel. After a few minutes the range, still dead ahead, appears as shown in illustration D047NG below. Which action should you take?

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🔍 Key Concepts

• Range markers (leading lights) and how their relative positions show whether you are left or right of the channel centerline • How the rear (higher) mark seems to move relative to the front mark when your vessel drifts off the range line • The idea that to regain the range you must steer toward the higher mark’s direction until the two marks line up vertically again

💭 Think About

• Look at the picture: is the higher, rear mark shifted to the left or to the right of the lower, front mark? What does that tell you about which side of the range line your vessel is on? • Once you know which side of the range line you are on, in which direction must you alter course so that the two marks come back into one vertical line? • Would changing only speed, with no course alteration, ever correct a lateral (sideways) offset from a range line?

✅ Before You Answer

• Be clear which structure is the front mark (closer, lower) and which is the rear mark (farther, higher) • Decide on which side of the front mark the rear mark appears; that side is the side your vessel has drifted toward • Confirm that the chosen action will move your vessel back toward the range line, not farther away from it