@psychopengy for a short moment let’s play with an idea that your Orca-Pioneer was marked just like your handheld Silva: imagine that zero was right below N and 180 was right below S. Now imagine securing this kind of compass to the bow of your kayak so that the compass window and that notch in the housing faces back, towards you.
If you were paddling straight towards north with a compass like this which number would be there under that yellowish or reddish line in the housing? It would be 180 but that’s wrong!!! You were heading north, but the stupid marine compass says you are going to the direction of 180 degrees!
That is why the N E S W letters and their corrensponding numbers must be on the opposite sides. This is the logic: marine compasses are always secured in place on the vessel so that the colorful line in the window faces back (or aft). You can look at the marine compass straight from above and you’ll see the compass rose (direction of north, east, south and west), but the numbers under that colorful line ALWAYS indicate which way your bow is pointing!
Just mount your Orca-Pioneer to the bow of your kayak (not right under your nose, but really to the bow) and start paddling. The number under that line keeps showing the direction you’re headed. When moving north it’ll show zero while the letter N on the compass rose is on the opposite side.
I hope this explained the logic. Back in the days I used to have a scuba diving compass on my wrist and that worked just like marine compasses. There were actually two windows, one above and one on the side. From the top window I could see the compass rose and raising my wrist right in front of my face the side window indicated my heading. suunto-sk-7.png
