Boat Forum / Cruising / January 2005

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.