On Mon, 17 Jan 2005 12:18:02 GMT, "Roger Long"
wrote:

Now that I am about to return to boat piloting, I'm unsure about the
place of GPS in my life. The old ways were a big part of cruising for
me. Ride a cable car up a mountain in Switzerland and you may see
people with ropes hanging by their fingernails trying to get the same
place you are going. The rational is similar. I'd also like my video
gaming kids to learn what the human mind can accomplish without the
aid of a microprocessor.

You have a good approach. Consider using the GPS for confirmation only
of your DR plots and running fixes when conditions are less than
ideal. Keep using the same safety margins as when you are doing
straight pilotage. I find I use the GPS mostly for SOG, to alert me to
set and drift due to non-obvious currents, and for ETAs, at which it
is handy for placating the crew G.

Lat/lon is helpful in confirming my navigation, not replacing it. It
does allow me to "sneak up" on things somewhat more safely, like a
buoy marking a shoal (not too shoal for me, but close). In fog, the
GPS allows me to know whether I'm on the "good side" of it, and as I
get close to its actual position (noted as a waypoint and not quite
correctly noted on the chart, BTW), I can ignore the GPS and "listen"
for the buoy's creaking and splash. So I keep the old skills up. The
GPS is like a jackline: just another safety tool that is only very
occasionally a life saver.

Offshore, I'd go celestial and use GPS to obtain times and to see if
my errors were shrinking.

R.