Next message: Bob Lowe: "TWL: RE: Propane range for trawler"
>Leonard wrote:
>I for one do use my sextant and use it to check just how close I can
come to the GPS.
It can be fun to master the older methods of navigation. I like to plot
all our courses on charts and make sure the waypoints in the plotter and
on the charts are the same and so on. But I would be surprised to meet
a boater who genuinely advocated using sextants and other "old" methods
of manual navigation over GPS, Loran, radar, etc. The reliability of
modern electronics is such that if you have reasonable redundancy in
your systems (built-in plotter and handheld plotter) and power supplies
(main boat system and AA, etc. batteries) the chances of having to fall
back on a sextant are just about zero. I think a greater case can be
made for maintaining the ability to use paper charts, as there are
instances where GPS can lead you into trouble which could be avoided
with the simultaneous use of a paper chart.
But I think the real value many of us see in the "old" methods of
navigation is not that they were better or even more reliable, but that
they forced you to pay attention. A sextant may have been a pain the
butt to use, but when someone was using one, it's safe to assume their
whole being was concentrating on what they were doing. This in itself
tends to reduce the chance of making a mistake. I think the biggest
problem with the technology we use today is that it makes it very easy
for a boater to make a mistake simply through inattention, or assumption
that the electronics will "take care of everything," or even transposing
numbers or letters on a display. Most of us can relate instances we've
witnessed or heard where someone using all the latest gear allowed that
gear to run him onto the rocks, down the wrong channel, or out to sea in
the wrong direction.
So I wonder if when we talk about the greater reliability of the "old
ways," or ask "what happens to all your fancy stuff when the power
fails?" we're not so much finding fault with new technology itself, but
with the potential for trouble if a boater lets the technology lull him
or her into a false sense of security. The kind of people on this list
are the vast minority of boaters. We, and I include sailboaters in
"we," have a different attitude toward boating than the much larger
summer-Saturday, race-about crowd or the sportfishermen. We see the
fellow with the brand new 40-foot, go-fast boat come howling into the
bay and later hear him say, "I just punch in where I want to go and this
little black box takes me there. Hell if I know how it works." And
maybe later we hear how he snagged a tow cable trying to run between a
tug and a barge, or powered onto a drying reef. And we hear that the
investigation showed there wasn't a chart on board, or a rules of
navigation book, or anything other than the electronics the boat came
equipped with. And maybe that's when we start thinking, "You know, if
boaters had to plot courses on charts and take bearings to determine
their location, you wouldn't have these dummies out there doing this
kind of stuff." So maybe it's not so much that we're condemmng
technology but that we're equating the old ways with responsibility.
It's a theory anyway....
______________________________
C. Marin Faure
GB36-403 "La Perouse"
Bellingham, Washington
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