Set your watch back 20 years

[dlochner]

Why? What jumps out? A cruise from Florida to Nova Scotia via SLS is ambitious. My take is that it would be irresponsible NOT to be prepared with everything they have listed. A relatively wealthy couple on what is undoubtedly an expensive boat ... I can't think of any reason why they are not being perfectly reasonable. I'd assume that there are numerous luxuries on board not mentioned, all perfectly reasonable and to be expected.

What caught my eye was not so much what they have, except perhaps the fish finder and no Star Link, as the reporter's focus on the electronic gadgets. How many engines? What type? how many staterooms, or steering stations or any of the other features, like how many toilets or showers.

I know the Oswego area well, having sailed out of there for 30+ years and currently volunteer for the marine museum in town. The locals think all boats are fishing boats or go fast cigarette boats. It says something about the general public perception when a reporter writes about a couple visiting and their boat, only mentioning the electronic gadgets.

And fun fact, it is possible to travel by boat to Tulsa OK. It is a commercial port supporting barge traffic.

 

[capta]

Over the last 6 decades of gallivanting here and there by boat, many of the new"aids" to boaters have meant more sleep and relaxation time for me. For instance, on a really crummy day, a day or two before a landfall, trying to get a good fix with a sextant and stopwatch could take me six hours or more. Now, all I have to do is look at a 10" screen. No more conjuring up cross track error in my head; it is all right there on the screen, plain as day.
And yet I miss the smell of marline wafting up from the sail sewing bag, The pride one feels in a job well done, when your fix is spot on and the "A" buoy rises out of the sea dead ahead, or you've tucked a reef before things got hairy, even though you had no weather report.

 

[capta]

View attachment 226403

Well, I'm glad to see they had a fish finder installed. That's bound to get them out of any distress they may finds themselves in.

Yes dear. Very good dear.

The new "fish finders" have side scanning sonar as well as a much more detailed view of what you are about to drop your anchor on, like an old shipwreck that could cost you your anchor and rode. At the price they are selling a good fish finder for, it makes no sense buying a "depth finder" these days.

 

[Dalliance]

I think it’s better now, but when it comes to electronics, I am very much of the keep it simple mentality and don’t want to be dependent on a single integrated system. I like to have a Plan B.

I sailed for decades with just a compass, analog knot meter, depth sensor and windex on my boat. Four years ago, I added a RayMarine wind instrument, auto helm and tri-data through hull. An integrated plug and play system, but it seems like a comparatively simple one. The auto helm especially makes sailing easier because I single hand most of the time. The wind instrument puts numbers to what I am feeling and I find that having apparent wind on a display at eye level instead of looking up at the windex means less eye strain and fewer stiff necks. I quickly wondered why I didn’t add them years earlier, but they are conveniences that I know how to get by without. I kept the vintage analog knot meter and separate depth sensor for the classic aesthetics and redundancy.

Mostly just day sailing out of Chicago, the new technology that I think most enhances planning and safety is not on the boat, but in my pocket. My cell phone provides a near shore communication alternative to vhf radio and the instant access it gives me to multiple sources of real time weather, radar and sea state information and forecasts is priceless. I also have a simple chart plotter app on my phone that comes in handy now and then as well.