What Is A Nautical Mile?

So, you are investigating the new dive site and making preparations for the dive itself, but you are not sure what does that boat distance of 4NM actually mean? It stands for a nautical mile.

Nautical miles are used for charting and navigating. A nautical mile is a unit of measurement defined as 1,852 meters (6,076.1 ft; 1.1508 mi). Historically, it was defined as one minute of latitude, which is equivalent to one-sixtieth of a degree of latitude.

A knot is a unit of measure for speed. If you are traveling at a speed of 1 nautical mile per hour, you are traveling at a speed of 1 knot.

There is no internationally agreed symbol, but around these parts, we use the “nm” abbreviation.

So, our example distance of 4nm would equal 7.408kilometre. Now, to calculate the time needed to travel that distance, we will need some math. A basic formula would be:

D (distance in nautical miles) = Speed (knots) x Time (hours)

In order to avoid reinventing the wheel, I will send you to a site which explains the process pretty straightforwardly.

One thing you’ll notice in Croatia though is that many locals rarely need any guidance and can navigate and predict weather without any help from the instruments and are occasionally more reliable than the official weather forecast.

The general rule on the boat is, if you can’t help, at least don’t get in the way. That way you may be rewarded with a good story and a shot of rakija later on.

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