On Wed, 01 Jan 2020 16:32:37 -0500, wrote:

On Wed, 01 Jan 2020 13:00:28 -0500, John H.
wrote:

On Wed, 1 Jan 2020 16:45:16 -0000 (UTC), Bill wrote:

John H. wrote:
On Tue, 31 Dec 2019 21:13:43 -0500, Alex wrote:

Last night...

https://wsvn.com/news/local/several-...rt-lauderdale/

Cocktails?

Not every jetty shows up on a GPS. That happened a few times in Deale,
MD, when folks would follow
the GPS to get home.


Midnight and speed. He was not going slow to get that far up the rocks in
a 42’ boat.

For sure speed. Same thing happens in Deale. Going fast and taking the line offered by the GPS has
been the problem more than once.

Everyone knows I am the real Luddite here but I fear modern
electronics is taking the place of basic seamanship and the importance
of local knowledge.

===

There's certainly nothing wrong with basic seamanship and local
knowledge but rule number 1 is to maintain a speed safe for the
conditions. Certainly bopping around in the dark at high speed,
probably after a drink or three, is a recipe for disaster. A former
neighbor of ours, with a boat load of people, and after a night of
drinking, parked his boat on the sandbar west end of Ft Myers Beach.
There were injuries but none of them serious. The same neighbor then
took up flying ultra light aircraft and ended up parked upside down in
a tree out in the boondocks. Bad luck or bad judgement? My guess is
on the latter.