[LonePalm]

Bonjour y'all! Laissez le bon Trump rouler!!!

Know your Nautical terminology

set and drift
Set is the direction of deviation from a ship's course caused by external forces. Drift is the velocity. Set and drift together form a vector quantity. When this vector is added to the vector of the ship's course and speed you get the course and speed made good.

There can be separate vectors for wind and current. Picture this: consider a large cruise ship entering a port on a river with a strong crosswind. The flow of the river acts to slow the ship's speed over ground while the cross wind pushes the ship sideways. You have to adjust your heading and throttle so that your course and speed made good matches what is desired and you stay in the channel.

Sea story: When my OS senior chief was being interviewed for his Enlisted Surface Warfare qualification, the CO asked him what set and drift was. He replied, "What my OSs tend to do when you don't watch them." Ouch, senior chief.

WWG1WGA

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[meyer]

Very much appreciate your nautical terminology posts!

I was the proud part-owner of a boat several years ago. I recall a few times, docking in our spot along the river, when the river current was high. It was more art than science, to guess where the boat would be by the time you started backing into the spot.

It was a combination of good guesswork and feel (and luck) that I never bumped an adjacent boat. Wind wasn’t a big issue as the river was in a valley, and the boat was small with a low profile.

[norsky]

Know your Nautical terminology

[philman_36]

set and drift - must be taken into account for dead reckoning. (Set and Drift)

Inseparable from each other.