Points of the compass

"How many points of the compass are there?" Captain Rose asked Harry Watts.
-"Uhh what are points?" Harry asked confused while eyeing the compass disk in front of his helm station.
"Directions."
-"Oh like North and South. So that's uhm four. And four for North-East and such. And then you got another four for North-North-East. So that makes twelve." Harry said convincingly.
"Nope sorry. It's thirty-two."
-"32"??

"Yes, you got the first four right, the cardinal directions; North, East, South, and West.
Then you have the ordinal directions North-East, South-East, South-West and North-West. That's another four.
Together those eight make up the main winds. Each forty-five degrees from another.
Then you make a mistake. If you divide those up again, you get eight extra points, not four."
Rose pointed out the diamond shapes on the compass rose between each big triangle. -"Ah yes, so that's North-North-East, East-North-East, East-South-East, South-South-East, South-South-West, West-South-West, West-North-West, and North-North-West." Harry summed them up as Rose moved her finger around."

"Excellent. Those are the eight half winds. Making sixteen points of the compass so far. Each twenty-two and a half degrees offset from each other. For meteorology, this is precise enough. As the wind is always a bit moving around, and never exactly one direction. But for steering a course, it is not good enough. So we divide those spaces in between up again, to sixteen extra spaces.

Between North and North-North-East, we get North by East."
Rose pointed out the small triangles between the big triangle showing north and the diamond mark showing North-North-West.

"These quarter winds are always relative to their biggest neighbouring main wind, never to half winds. So the next one will be, North-east by North." Pointing at the mark between North-North-East and North-East. So if we go around again. North-East by East, East by North, East by South, South-East by East, South-East by South, South by East." Rose dictated. Now she looked at Harry, and he picked up the queue. Eyeing the compass rose, he continued the circle.
-"South by West, South-West by South, South-West by West, West by South, West by North, North-West by West, North-West by North, and North by West."
"Very good, so that are all we are using. The classic thirty two. If you were in the navy you might be dividing those up again into even smaller parts. They'd be going North and a quarter, North and a half, North and three quarters, before arriving at North by East. Making one hundred and twenty-eight points. But we don't use that. If we need to get more precise, we just use the three hundred and sixty degree scale." Rose explained.

"So what is our heading?" Rose asked Harry.
-"East-North-East Captain."
Rose looked up at the sails.
"The wind is slowly veering, make it East by North.
-"East by North" Harry answered dutifully, while he turned the helm a bit to starboard. While eyeing the compass rose turning underneath the mark in the glass.

"Tramontana, Greco, Levante, Scirocco, Ostro, Libeccio, Ponente, Maestro. The Boatswain interrupted, while pointing around.
-"What?" Harry said, confused.
"The traditional Mediterranean winds, I assume. But I have to admit I don't know them." Explained Rose.
Michael smiled. "So you don't know which way Quarto di Levante verso Greco is?
"Nope, should I know?" asked Rose.
"Nah, no need, I only know the eight names, and that one too." Michael explained.
"So what is it then?" Harry asked.
"East by North" Bobby answered, to the surprise of all."

Thirty two points
of the compass

No.	Point	Code	Degrees
0	North	N	0°
1	North by East	NbE	11¼°
2	North-North-East	NNE	22½°
3	North-East by North	NEbN	33¾°
4	North-East	NE	45°
5	North-East by East	NEbE	50¼°
6	East-North-East	ENE	67½°
7	East by North	EbN	78¾°
8	East	E	90°
9	East by South	EbS	101¼°
10	East-South-East	ESE	112½°
11	South-East by East	SEbE	123¾°
12	South-East	SE	135°
13	South-East by South	SEbS	146°
14	South-South-East	SSE	157½°
15	South by East	SbE	168¾°
16	South	S	180°
17	South by West	SbW	191¼°
18	South-South-West	SSW	202½°
19	South-West by South	SWbS	213¾°
20	South-West	SW	225°
21	South-West by West	SWbW	236¼°
22	West-South-West	WSW	247½°
23	West by South	WbS	258¾°
24	West	W	270°
25	West by North	WbN	281¼°
26	West-North-West	WNW	292½°
27	North-West by West	NWbW	303¾°
28	North-West	NW	315°
29	North-West by North	NWbN	326¼°
30	North-North-West	NNW	337½°
31	North by West	NbW	348¾°
32	North	N	360°

Boxing the Compass

Boxing the Compass is the art of an navigational officer in training of naming all the thirty two points in order, going around the compass. It is used as a training tool.

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