For some navigation is what drives them--they love charts, GPSs, and lap tops with navigational software. I've sailed the pacific northwest for around forty five years. We started cruising in a small boat with charts and a compass and covered most of Puget Sound.
So I get a kick out of those who like to use a laptop with navigational software. They are fun.
A few years back I was a charter boat skipper for a family--husband, wife, older son and daughter. We were sailing from Sucia, one of our beautiful marine parks and heading toward Friday Harbor, a small town in the middle of the San Juan Islands. After raising sail, a light breeze came up and we sailed along around four to five knots. The wife was at the wheel and I sat in the cockpit tending sails. Her husband stayed most of the time at the navigation locker and every once in a while a voice from below would call out, "We're passing Orcus Island on our port side" or something similar. Son, who was fighting jet lag, slept and daughter spent the entire time on her cell phone sending messages.
But the lady of the house and I had a wonderful sail. We knew where we were. And then that mysterious voice from below...."we heading down San Juan Channel at 3.9 knots against the current."
It still is one of my more enjoyable sails and indeed the family still is one of my favorite.
