What If ...

[woodster]

Hrm....I almost wonder, at times, if it would be nice to return to simpler times with less electronic crap. We create a lot of artificial stress on ourselves. We spoil ourselves with technology.

Navigation without GPS is not that bad when you are coastal. I like my GPS for speed but is not necessary to get around with.

Here is the thing.....You should always take extra food on your boat in the form of dry goods and can goods if you are out on a cruise. You should always have back up plans if things don't go as planned (they seldom do). The main thing is that if you aren't comfortable going into the new harbor then go to a familiar one and hang around in old haunts if you feel better about doing it. Talk to other sailors in those places and see if they have local knowledge of where you are going (you can usually find someone who has and they are more than willing to talk to you about them).

GPS is a nice thing, but it isn't necessary. Charts and compasses are what are really needed for cruising more than those make-life-easy-things.

i couldnt agree more with that concept.......i had a holliday in Australia about 6 years ago and was in a small area about an hour and half out of Melbourn....it was like going back to the 50's in a lot of ways ......and i enjoyed more than i could have ever imagined...people were really layed back and not fast paced as they are here.....i took showers in rain water everyday while there and not once did i have airconditioning and it was the peek of there summer....it was one of the best months if have ever lived ....doing things the old way is not as hard as it seems if you are able to make the best out of what you have or not have as the case may be ...

regards

woody

 

[Steve W]

Maybe I'm dating myself here but when you take your CG exam for even a 6-pack, aren't there a bunch of nav questions which require you to use a paper chart and plot current set and drift and come up with a position based on ded reckoning? Aren't those things taught any more?

Forgive my rant but it would seem to me that if someone's taking a cruise, even a coastal one, of any distance, one would plot positions on a paper chart even if those positions were derived from the GPS? At the very least, if the electronics went belly-up you could plot a ded reckoning position from the last "known" position.

Or am I too old fashioned? or just too old?

S

 

[Bill Roosa]

Get a copy of Bowditch

I'm pretty sure the cptain is required to keep a DR position on commercial boats. Can also be an ANS plot but they have to maintain the paper charts and tools for the ocasion when the ANS goes down.
Bowditch has an excelent discussion on DR and how to do it "the right way"

 

[Ross]

Re: Get a copy of Bowditch

DR plotting is so much more than just keeping track of your speed and heading. You must also keep a knowledge of the currents and how they set you. You also need to get a fix as often as posible.