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Navigating with grains of salt
The post about taking your charts with a grain of salt and using all
available information brings up the conundrum I'm facing as I return to sailing after nearly 20 years. Most of my command time was in simple, traditional, boats. The most complex instrument on board was my usually watch. I didn't even have a depth sounder or speedometer and navigated clock and compass exactly as was done 100 years ago. Since I sailed in Maine, I saw a lot of fog and made a lot of long runs this way. Never in a boat have I felt more aware and in touch with my surroundings then when enveloped in that gray cocoon with buoys and ledges occasionally moving through it, usually right on schedule. The faint sound of a wave on rock, the darkening of the fog where a headland blocked the light, a change in wave patterns as I passed a gap in a protecting chain of islands or ledges, all helped confirm that my chart work was right. Some of the later boats I chartered had Loran but I never turned it on. I didn't want to be distracted by learning it and using the old ways was a big part of the enjoyment of cruising. I used (and taught when I was a piloting instructor) very simple methods that would be less likely to let me down when tired or busy. Instead of speed and distance calculations, I would just set my dividers to the boat's speed on the scale and then do everything in time. On one of my last charters, a hurricane threatened. We were way downeast and the owner insisted that we had to get sixty miles back to his mooring in dense fog instead of tucking the boat into a hole and riding it out. It was one of the thickest fogs I have ever seen. We ran through most of Fox Island Thoroughfare without seeing either shore. It was a memorable day. I learned how to fly airplanes a few years later and that put navigation in a whole new light. The plane had Loran and GPS but I refused to turn them on for the first three years so that I would develop the map and eyeball skills and a feel for the distances and speed. Now I use the magic boxes all the time but, in some ways, my situational awareness is less. I track a position that I can transfer to the paper map it the power fails but it is different. I used to be flying over the land and identified fixes below. Now I am flying over the map. You get lazy fast, especially with all the other things to attend to in an airplane. 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. But, is it responsible? It certainly won't be seen as such if I ever hit anything. On the other hand, I know of many aircraft accidents that were clearly caused by the pilot trying to use the box instead of his mind. I always used to know where I was. I'm not sure narrowing it down with an electronic cursor will significantly increase my safety in most circumstances. The strongest rational I can see for relating my place in life to invisible satellites instead of the landscape I can see around me is backup for my macroprocessor. If I should fall overboard or become incapacitated, the kids can either tell the Coast Guard, "We're right here", or follow the cursor home. I'd like to think I could teach them to do the same thing the old way but, face it, they know about GPS, they aren't going to be very interested in learning that, "other stuff". I like gadgets though. I have an old aviation GPS that will give me latitude, longitude, and waypoints. I can't knowingly leave it ashore. I'll have to buy a marine unit for my new job as Harbormaster. I won't leave that behind either. Once I turn them on, I know I'll be hooked and something very rich and rewarding will have passed from my life forever. -- Roger Long |
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