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Originally Posted by codeman671
I would like to see an experiment on that one... I have 20/15 vision and don't think that I could see a kayak 1' high at 3 nautical miles...At that distance it would blend in with the waves/surroundings and look quite insignificant. Your visibility formula may or may not be accurate (I did not bother to investigage but will take your word on it) but it is all relative to the size of the object that you are looking at and the overall light conditions at that time.
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Goodness,
one of the first statements I made in my post was "we're talking about visibility over relatively short distances here - like a mile or less (not several miles)." (I guess you missed that.)
jrc was the one that brought up the height/distance relationship - all I did was produce the actual formular that you use (look it up) - and I pointed out that his calculations were off. The formular gives you the MAXIMUM distance that you can see another object across a body of water - which is based on the curvature of the earth. THAT'S IT. And that MAXIMUM distance is the furtherest you can see across water, even if you use a telescope.
My point was that I have absolutely no trouble spotting other kayakers that are over a mile away - in normal weather conditions - in the daylight. I believe that my position (at their same level) and my slow speed give me some advantage. In actual practice, I know that I can often see other kayaks that are 1-1/2 miles away. For instance, on Squam, when I leave Piper's Cove, I can usually see kayaks up until they pass between Moon Island and Bowman Island. According to my chart, that's just about 1.5 miles away.