I would like to congratulate Mr. Stock on his 'Hints for Dinghy Cruising' in your last issue, but I would also like to take him up on a point or two about navigation.

I like Ordnance Survey maps as adjuncts to charts, but can never accept them as being of far more use, since they give very meagre information about the sea. Perhaps a chart would make the Thames Estuary less of a "bewildering game"?

Lead lines received rather short shrift too - the sounding pole method is good in depths down to about 6 feet, but this is not the limit of interest. The lead is one of the few 'instruments' capable of giving you a fix or some idea where you are, which will survive years of abuse in a dinghy. It is one of the few instruments that works equally well in a fog. When anchoring it enables you to determine how much scope you need (most tides are more than 6ft.) and to discover if the bottom is level or steeply shelving. In spite of these comments, I suspect that Mr. Stock may not be alone in his views on leads; perhaps we shall hear from other members. Ron Long