Originally Posted by
pasta
I can't get my head around that at all; having spent far too much of my time on boats, the only waves I see are related to the wind. Nevertheless, the same techniques have been used to navigate parts of the Pacific for time immemorial, and the charts were made from sticks.
As to the map orientation debate: We all have our own preference, but for me it depends on the type of navigation. For precise navigation following features (eg orienteering) map in direction of travel wins every time. When general positional awareness is more important than precise location - sailing, flying (at reasonable speeds, a sensible distance from the ground), hillwalking - it's always North up. My mental map for sailing races (which often use standardised courses oriented to the wind) is Wind up.
Pasta : That skipper explained that the waves were refracted around shallows, reflected from cliffs and altered by currents. Once you got to know these patterns, you could tell when you had rounded a headland, or a sandbar, or were approaching a coast, even in bad visibility. This man had started work as a boy on the last of the trading Thames sailing barges, and his navigation was instinctive (though he did use charts as well sometimes).