Ted wrote:

snip
I don't put much faith in the cry of the
geezers about the undisputed reliability of the simple magnetic compass
and the paper map. I don't believe that most of them even go boating.
They just sit on the internet and run their mouth.


snip
..why I don't have much patience for geezers who ignorantly
sing the praises of paper maps as the be-all and end-all in marine
navigation and why I don't believe that most of them have ever been to sea.

Thanks for the details. You seem a little fixated on older people and
people that use charts. I have nothing against either one of those
groups.

When I go to sea it is usually to deliver someone else's boat and my
focus is to do it without damaging the boat or getting lost. I usually
have at least three frames of reference available for navigation and I
use them all. But I never put my trust in any one of them exclusively.

Coastal Maine is not a good place for relying on one thing, I like the
warm fuzzy feeling I got when I have two or three things telling me that
I probably am where I think I am.

Between the navaids, the chartbook, and the GPS chart plotter, I'm the
only one that has to be right all of the time.

Jack

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA - jackerbes at adelphia dot net
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine.com)