External Aids to Navigation
摘要
The previous chapter discussed the various internal navigation aids which may be available to the OOW on a typical ship’s bridge. This chapter discuss the numerous ‘external’ aids to navigation (increasingly referred to as AToNs) such as lighthouses, buoys and virtual constructs which exist solely on AIS. Sailors have relied upon such external references to their ship to keep clear of dangers and navigate to their destination for as long as people have been going down to the sea in ships, and notwithstanding the advent of GPS and ECDIS, understanding the various marks remains a key skill for the navigator.