I have started to the last few years. We live on a bay/tidal estuary and fog can come rolling in pretty quick even on a beautiful day. Years ago it didn’t even occur to me bceause I was ignorant. God protects children, the starship Enterprise, and fools.
That said on various inland paddles like a small lake or river I don’t think it’s necessary but the more open the body of water the more a compass can be useful. I only happened to use it once to find my way back home in fog which is very scary. I haven’t actually had to use it for a big ocean type voyage like paddling across the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands or across the Denmark strait from Greenland to Iceland, that sort of thing but I would imagine you long distance ocean kayakers consider it a necessity too.
They’re not expensive and can be a lifesaver. Anyone use a compass and if so, ever actually needed it?
I try to pack basic survival gear wherever I go in the woods or water. Things like fire starter, compass, dry clothing, food and water. I’m not always good about it but I try to always bring it. I don’t have a deck compass just a handheld. I should throw a compass in the little dry bag I use as a deck bag along with my magnesium and other goodies.
I always have one of these little clip-on compasses attached to the sleeve of my motorcycle jacket since I like to ride until I’m lost and it helps reduce panic if your low fuel light comes on…I have needed it many times. My paddling day pack has a better compass in it but I just added the clip-on since it’s easy to put in a spot where you can always see it. I’ve never (yet) needed one while canoeing.
One in a dry bag inside the hatch, one in my PDF pocket. Not to mention the deck compass on the boat I use for most of my touring. I wouldn’t trust the one in my phone as far as I can throw it.
I like to practice compass navigation skills often, and have done quite a few trips without relying on GPS.
Yes I have used a compass in heavy fog on Lake Superior traveling from one Island to another. {Apostles} Lay the GPS on my spray-deck to check my bearing from time to time…paddle with an eye on the compass that way I don’t have to look down and paddle. it’s weird enough to paddle in thick fog and very disorienting.
@SharpsRifle said:
I try to pack basic survival gear wherever I go in the woods or water. Things like fire starter, compass, dry clothing, food and water. I’m not always good about it but I try to always bring it. I don’t have a deck compass just a handheld. I should throw a compass in the little dry bag I use as a deck bag along with my magnesium and other goodies.
You seem like the type. That’s a compliment.
@NotThePainter said:
I used my iPhone compass once and felt like an idiot for not having a real one. You know what they call people who rely on tech gear for survival?
Victims
+1!
@TomL said:
I always have one of these little clip-on compasses attached to the sleeve of my motorcycle jacket since I like to ride until I’m lost and it helps reduce panic if your low fuel light comes on…I have needed it many times. My paddling day pack has a better compass in it but I just added the clip-on since it’s easy to put in a spot where you can always see it. I’ve never (yet) needed one while canoeing.
I always wondered where you could get a semi permanent compass on a canoe?
@Sparky961 said:
I wouldn’t trust the one in my phone as far as I can throw it.
I have used my phone compass a few times and that is why I always kept bringing my old compass in the woods. Now I use specific kayak related compasses as well.
@roym said:
Whenever I buy a kayak, the first thing I install is a deck mounted compass.
Yup. They’re not expensive. You can get a deck mountable compass for about $30-40 or so and they have straps almost like bungee ties like you would tie stuff to the top of your car so you just secure it on your rigging. It takes 3 seconds to install and is not a permanent solution so you don’t have to start making holes but it stays there as long as you want. You can remove it to protect it from the elements or impacts in storage but I find that if I don’t leave it in my kayak bag with the dry shoes, waterproof bag and miscellaneous other things I’ll forget it. If I am doing a longer paddle in a double then I will secure a second one for the person in the bow, usually my wife or one of my sons.
Sure. It comes in handy when paddling a new lake or other open water. If I think something is worth paddling to across the water, I take a look at the direction to it and easily find my way back.
Some of my most memorable paddles were on a large Adirondack lake that is well noted for often being fogged in. Long and narrow, it has multiple islands and shoals to navigate by to reach trails and camping at the far end from the launch. When it is so thick that I can hardly see the end of the canoe, I like to place my compass at my feet in the canoe and paddle an azimuth that I know should miss all the major obstacles. By the time I reach the far end about 5 miles away, the sun usually burns off the fog and I am where I thought I should be. By the way, I teach land navigation ( map and compass) to wilderness guides in training, to SAR teams, and to Law Enforcement for NY state Homeland Security, so I am always with compass and practicing the art.
You know in today’s world where for probably $5 you can order a cheap clip on compass and a clip on thermometers without even having to go to a store, it really is silly not to have both those things with you all the time.
During the non touristy outdoor times the year paying attention to what temperature it is at what time time of day is an important bit of info to make decisions
@JackL said:
Prior to my GPS days I always took one, but now with the GPS there is no need for one
Earlier this year I ran into fog. I have two kayaks with deck compass and one without. This was the one without. I did have a compass in my PFD, but I didn’t bother taking it out because I had a GPS on the deck.
I ended up crossing a busy shipping lane without knowing it until I suddenly saw a green buoy while still thinking I was following the line of red buoys at the other side of the lane. When trying to get back on track, I actually ended up doing a full circle.
You can of course say that I just doesn’t know how to use a GPS. Part of that is true - I did not have the optimal screen setup for fog navigation, and at some point I actually realized that I corrected opposite of what I should have done. But you could probably say the same about other people who rely on a GPS in such situations.
(On the other hand, Freya Hoffmeister never brings a compass. She solely rely on GPS (multiple GPSs, actually). She has succeeded in circumnavigating 2 continents, and one must assume that she ran into some fog every now and then.)
I do not understand paddling open water without a compass. It is nothing to carry one in your PFD whether or not you have a deck compass. Seriously.
What Freya does is what Freya does. Admirable as it is, I don’t see it applying to most paddlers’ situations.
A handheld one takes up almost no space in the pocket of a PFD, can’t run out of battery life, can’t suddenly fail for some unknown reason when it is sitting in the boat deck a few feet in front of the cockpit. It is easier to pull out when the fog bank rolls in than messing around with more complicated stuff. In a point to point paddle I would go first to chart or GPS for more accuracy. But the value of getting a rough cut with a handheld compass is not negligible.
There is a regimen to using a chart that you can skip with a GPS. It means keeping ongoing track of where you came from, or noting the fog bank coming in early enough to get heading points. But both of these are good basic habits for getting home safely on a regular basis anyway, especially if you are paddling solo like me. And for the majority of my paddling on open water I just need to know how to get back to the mainland within a rough distance of where I took off.
I have either an installed or strap-on compass for any boat that goes out on open water, and I tend to go to that first. I also carry a GPS unit in my day hatch, though it rarely gets turned on. I am not interested in tracking my speed or paddles these days as long as I know I have enough head room to get back within the planned time. But I would feel quite naked if I did not have a hand-held compass on me as well. Since it lives in a pocket of my PFD on a long tether to a D-ring, I don’t have to remember it.
@“Allan Olesen”
Aside from maybe the Freya thing, though an opinion is not necessarily a fight, I was not criticizing you. The OPer is clearly someone who is considering the value of a compass and asked about that from others. My position may be on the strong side for those who will go to electronics always, but then again I am officially in my late 60’s and there has been somewhat of a age divide on that one.
@JackL said:
Prior to my GPS days I always took one, but now with the GPS there is no need for one
Earlier this year I ran into fog. I have two kayaks with deck compass and one without. This was the one without. I did have a compass in my PFD, but I didn’t bother taking it out because I had a GPS on the deck.
I ended up crossing a busy shipping lane without knowing it until I suddenly saw a green buoy while still thinking I was following the line of red buoys at the other side of the lane. When trying to get back on track, I actually ended up doing a full circle.
One of the problems with GPS navigation is that even though it knows exactly where you are and exactly where you are going, it has a harder time orienting you when you move so slowly.
If you have a GPS and compass you can look at the GPS, get a heading and follow the compass.
GPS is cool, but I think people rely on it too much. Especially in the woods but people don’t have maps and compasses enough anymore, They work nearly every time.
I’m on the ‘play it safe’ (maybe a bit on the ‘paranoid’ side).
Though, these days, I only use a gps, I always carry at least one compass in the safety bag.
You know, for when we get nuked by the Nork’s and the gov turns off the gps Sat’s.
I know, any more - that won’t happen; cars will drive off cliffs, all sorts of other stuff will stop working.
Kind of like the days when we first started using computers - there was always the backup in the file drawer. Now we are oh so dependent on them.
(not to mention losing doing math in the head prior to calculators, quick, what’s 13 x 11)
As far as compass never fail, well, maybe operator error, but:
Prior to a paddling trip around Lake Superior, I’d just gotten a new Nordkapp.
When crossing Whitefish Bay, the (mounted) compass reading didn’t look right, I pulled out a spare handheld compass and confirmed, it was off several degrees.
I wacked it several times with the paddle to no avail.
After landing at Whitefish Pt., I opened the forward hatch and noticed I had stored my shortwave radio (read - big magnet) directly underneath the compass.
