Made a fishing trip this morning(caught 2-about the same as everybody else I talked to ). I had been toying with a way to judge how fast you are traveling if you don't have a GPS( No Jack , I still don't have one. :wink: ). I figured feet per second would be a good unit to use because of the slow speed we travel. Had to brush up on my math.
5280 ft (mile)/60 = 88 ft/minute
88 ft / 60 = 1.4666 ft / second = 1 mph
Say your boat is 16' OAL. You come up to an object that is stationary(log, snag,etc.) . As the front of the boat passes the object start counting " Mississippi one, Mississippi two, Mississippi three " and stop as the rear of the boat passes the object. If your 16' boat covers the distance in 3 seconds, you are traveling about 3.63 mph ( 16 /3 =5.333. 5.333 /1.4666= 3.63 mph.
Obviously, this is not going to be dead on but it will give you an idea how much progress you are making against wind, waves or current. I did it a few times this morning and got about 2 1/2 seconds for my 16 ft pirogue. This calculates out to 4.36 mph. When I got home I checked my time on a half mile section on Google Earth. Went .59 miles in 8 minutes at a good fast cruise speed-- not pushing it. Calculated out to 4.42 mph. Pretty darn close.
Just figure out the times for your boat. Also, that 1.4666 feet/sec = 1mph would come in handy to judge current speed.
Ya get to think of a lot of crazy things while paddling. 8)
5280 ft (mile)/60 = 88 ft/minute
88 ft / 60 = 1.4666 ft / second = 1 mph
Say your boat is 16' OAL. You come up to an object that is stationary(log, snag,etc.) . As the front of the boat passes the object start counting " Mississippi one, Mississippi two, Mississippi three " and stop as the rear of the boat passes the object. If your 16' boat covers the distance in 3 seconds, you are traveling about 3.63 mph ( 16 /3 =5.333. 5.333 /1.4666= 3.63 mph.
Obviously, this is not going to be dead on but it will give you an idea how much progress you are making against wind, waves or current. I did it a few times this morning and got about 2 1/2 seconds for my 16 ft pirogue. This calculates out to 4.36 mph. When I got home I checked my time on a half mile section on Google Earth. Went .59 miles in 8 minutes at a good fast cruise speed-- not pushing it. Calculated out to 4.42 mph. Pretty darn close.
Just figure out the times for your boat. Also, that 1.4666 feet/sec = 1mph would come in handy to judge current speed.
Ya get to think of a lot of crazy things while paddling. 8)
