Greetings, this question is from an actual event, it is wordy on purpose to encourage you to weed out the unnecessary niff naff and trivia. Hope you enjoy it.
You are on a mile builder trip, you left Douglas on the Isle of Man 2 days ago and have had a lovely trip taking in a few sights along the way. There have been several navigation challenges set for your team along the way. Your 0400 fix put you at 54º 51.17’ N 005º 15.33’ W course 360º T speed 15 knots. The last shipping forecast confirmed there is no weather system of any significance in the area. You are aiming to be at Campbeltown for breakfast.
It is 0445, sunrise is just over 1.5 hrs hours away, it has been a clear calm night and with the exception of a couple of ferries and fishing vessels, it is a relatively quiet watch. Your navigation challenge is to see if Sanda Island and Ailsa Craig lights put you where you think you should be using dipping height calculations and a compass bearing. Your instructor covered the radar and chartplotter displays before you came on watch to encourage you to use just the chart and gyro compass to navigate. You can see the lume of Sanda Lt around 45º off the Port bow. Ailsa Craig lume is around 20º off the Stbd bow. The chart gives you the following information Sanda Lt Fl.10s50m15M. Ailsa Craig Lt Fl.4s18m17M
Your bridge card tells you to use a height of eye of 3.8m
Rather than do the plotting exercise, your task is to work out the dipping distance of each light.
You are not expected to take HoT into consideration as this is an exercise to offer confirmation of an expectation rather than a precision navigation exercise. (Be mindful that navigation is not an exact science but rather a craft using training and interpretation of many data elements).
My thoughts next week, good luck.