How to Proceed Through the Lessons

The course is designed to make it easy and convenient for you to learn coastal navigation. Content is divided into 8 sections. Each section contains lessons covering related material. It's recommended you proceed through the sections and lessons in order, starting at the first, and finishing each before moving on.

Use your browser's bookmark, favorites or create shortcut feature to create a quick link to the student log-in page.

Once you've logged in, the starting point for navigating the site is the Main Table of Contents (Main TOC). From here you can go to all the Sections, the Appendix, and these student instructions pages.

Each Section has its own Section Table of Contents (Section TOC). It contains a brief introduction to the Section and links to the Lessons and exercises within the Section.

Some Lessons contain a GO! button. It takes you to material essential for completing the course. Some of these pages should be printed for easy reference.

There are links that take you from Lesson to Lesson, and from the last Lesson in a Section to the next Section. You can also return to the Section TOC or the Main TOC to navigate from there.

Finally, keep track of your progress so you don't accidentally miss a Lesson or Section.

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Exercises and Plotting Practice

At the end of each section are quizzes and/or plotting exercises. These will help you test the knowledge you've gained and ensure you've mastered the content of the section before moving on to the next.

The quizzes are called Test Yourself. They're short and shouldn't take you more than 20 minutes to complete. There's a link to the answer page at the end of each quiz.

The plotting exercises are called Plot It! These will help you acquire speed and accuracy in plotting. At first it may take you 10 to 15 minutes to do each exercise, but you'll get faster as you gain experience.

As with the quizzes, each Plot It! exercise is linked to an answer page so you can check your results.

Print the Test Yourself and Plot It! pages as you come to them and write or plot your answers. Keep these pages and use them to provide proof of completion, or to prepare for the exam.

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The Practice Cruise

In addition to the Plot It! exercises there is a practice cruise in Section 7. Like the exercises, this cruise helps you build speed, accuracy and confidence in plotting.

Cruises are plotted on the CHS nautical chart included in your student kit. Each cruise has answer pages so you can check your work.

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The Appendix

The Appendix contains additional material you'll find helpful and interesting. It is accessed through the Main Table of Contents. This material is outside the curriculum of the Sail Canada Standard and is included simply for your information.

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Writing the Exam

Once you've finished the course, you may chose to write the Sail Canada Basic Coastal Navigation exam. Students who receive a passing grade are awarded the Sail Canada Basic Coastal Navigation Standard. See The Sail Canada Standard and Writing the Sail Canada Exam for details.

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Student Agreement

Finally, by registering as a student, you agree to certain conditions. Please review the Student Agreement and inform coastalnavigation.com if you are unable to meet these conditions.

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Student Instructions Page 1