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Subject: RE TWL: redundant instruments- how much as too much
From: David (david@XXX.XXX)
Date: Fri Mar 01 2002 - 10:40:34 EST
Reading the thread on redundant systems, I am a bit worried that many TWL
folks might not get home if their electronic contraptions fail. Spending
thousands on redundant systems for coastal cruising to me is unnecessary. I
am not at all a techno-phobic, but I spent my first 30 years coastal
cruising and fishing with only a compass, chart and radio. I do have a good
chart plotter and hand held GPS on board, but if they fail it would not
slow me down at all. In fact I bought the plotter/DGPS and carried it for
1000 miles before I got around to installing it. Its really helpful but far
from necessary.
If you are uneasy about leaving the dock without these navigational
wonders, I suggest you plan a long weekend cruise using only your charts
and compass.
One of my favorite memories was coming in from fishing some 100 miles off
NJ and using dead reckoning after 20 hours of trolling to try to hit Cape
May NJ. There was always the chance we would head up Delaware Bay and not
see land, but then the water color would change and would head further
north. Made it every time. One time in the fog I had to ask a surfer which
way to the Cape May inlet, would have liked GPS that day, but we found it.
Skooch - Hatteras LRC 42
Worton Creek, MD
David Stahl
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