The article in the most current issue of "Soundings" about the recent
L.I. Sound collision-caused death (from a heart attack triggered by
the crash) of an otherwise *very* experienced/skillful and also
asssertedly safety-oriented captain/sailor when the J-105 in which he
was sleeping, crewed by his son and a friend, was motoring late at
night in the fog toward Block Island and was hit and sunk by a large
commercial cruiser reports that the J-105's two crew saw the
approaching motor boat (said to be moving at +/- 6 kts) but could not
disengage their autopilot in time to take evasive action.

How many of us who occasionally (or, for that matter, lots of the
time) use these sorts of instruments actually insure that,
f'rinstance, to disengage an autopilot, etc., Etc. (however
"simple"/easy [and "obvious"?] one [who is experienced] might think
that and related operations ought be and usually are)?