Introduction to Navigation Navigation is the technique of planning a course from one place to another. All travel requires navigation in some form or fashion. If you drive across town, you are navigating even if you are only planning the course in your head. Dead Reckoning Dead reckoning is the determination of position by advancing a previously determined position by distances and directions travelled. In essence, if you know where you were, the direction you are going and the distance you have travelled, you should be able to figure out where you are now.
Errors can build in dead reckoning solutions.
First, a position solution can be only as good as the quality of the previous position solution. If you were not able to measure where you were very well, you can't have any more confidence in your current solution no matter how well you measured your speed or direction of travel. Second, a position solution can be only as your ability to measure speed and direction of travel. The accuracy of navigation measurements can be distorted by environmental factors such as water and air currents. Course and Course Made Good Course is the direction of travel, while Course Made Good is the direction actually travelled.