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Here you go:
Ritchie, Suunto, Silva, Plastimo (made by one of the others and badged) they are all good compasses.
I
have a Suunto MC2 hand compass and both a Silva 58 and Suunto Orca (which is their Pilot in a housing specifically for kayaks).
The
Suunto is better CAN BE illuminated with an electrical wiring set up but not the kayak version!! Only the standard 58. You
don't want an illuminated compass - not when you can get a LUMINOUS one (the Orca is a totally luminous - or phosphorescent
- card). The less there is to go wrong the better. You can rely on the wiring for an illuminated compass to work perfectly
- until you actually NEED it. Sods law dictates that is when it will give up the ghost.
The Suunto hand held is also
brilliantly luminous.
You should, out of habit, take a note of the bearing you go out on. Then going home is easy -
just go on the reciprocal. To find the reciprocal, or opposite, add or subtract 180 degrees. You don't need to be deadly accurate
- round it to the nearest 10, that is about as accurate as you can paddle anyway - and then err a bit on the side the tide
is coming from.
A steering compass has the card reversed - because it tells you where you are heading, not where north
is. The actual N pole of the compass is MARKED as south - because it is the card marking in line with the lubber line which
tells you where you are going. This is what you see.
A steering compass is perfectly Ok - the Suunto Orca is probably
the best buy. The others are very good compasses, but they don't have such a luminous card and the Suunto card is very visible
when mounted on the foredeck. So easy to use as it sits in your line of sight while paddling without having to look down.
For £35 it is brilliant - and very well balanced.
The MC2 is one of the best hand held's out there (unless you have
one of the military prismatic compasses - I do! It came from an Isreali soldier....bless his cotton socks.) The beauty of
it is it has a large bezel which is fully luminous - so it is easy to use with cold hands and very easily viewed. You could
navigate to within a degree with it- my military compass is very fine, but no good on the kayak because of the movement of
the kayak. It is too small a card.
Whatever compass you go for - make sure you keep it at least 2 feet away from anything
with a ferrous metal, and anything with an electric current flowing through it - or it can be as much as 30 degrees out. So
N.B.G. in short. VHF, Mobile, GPS, box of lures, battery (just under the fore hatch is it? with compass mounted above by
any chance???)
Take a note of your heading on the way out - and just note the opposite. That is the way home - so going
out is WSW, home is ENE. In degrees - if outward is 250 homeward is 070.
When giving bearings ALWAYS GIVE 3 FIGURES.
There is no such bearing 70 - it is 070. If you get a bearing with only 2 numbers in it, one is missing. Ask for a repeat.
THAT is why you always give 3 figures - if you get 3 numbers, you know you have got it all - if you only hear 30, was it 030,
130, 230 or 330 - four possible bearings. If you insist on giving and receiving 3 figure bearings there can be no ambiguity
or mistake.
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