NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: What do offshore recreational navigators really do?
From: Peter Fogg
Date: 2005 Jun 8, 07:53 +1000
From: Peter Fogg
Date: 2005 Jun 8, 07:53 +1000
Lu Abel asked: > Do these folks count as mariners made of stern stuff or simply fools?? > Well, they sailed all around the world over several decades in what would be considered these days a rather primitive timber boat, and did it relying on their own resources - no marinas, let alone GPS or Radar. In one of their books ('The Misty Islands' by Miles Smeeton) Miles recounts wintering in a northern island of Japan, little touched by the modern world, where with some difficulty they had their boat hauled out so they could work on it. In the Spring they sailed via the Aleutian Islands to Alaska. On a navigational note, the Aleutians presented (among others) problems of abundant fog and strong and unpredictable currents; all successfully negotiated. Not so foolish. Towards the end of his life Miles could say that he had visited every page of the Times atlas (after his sailing days were over he made a North West Passage as a guest on an icebreaker). You are, of course, welcome to your own opinion. I will, however, take issue with: > ... for $1K I could buy four high-quality GPS receivers and a whole lot of > batteries. As an engineer you might like to calculate the quantity, weight, cost, and keeping quality issues of amassing enough batteries to power handheld GPS receivers over the period needed for an extended passage, along with the difficulties involved in replacing them regularly along the way, in what are the charmingly undeveloped places we sail so far to find. It doesn't stack up. What I really question is the logic here, of addressing the shortcomings of complex technology with more of the same. The cruising lifestyle has been described as one of endlessly repairing pretty well everything that can go wrong in the most inconvenient of places. A couple arrived in Durban, South Africa, in a small and poorly equipped boat. Because it had little to go wrong they soon had it shipshape again. Among the people they met in port were another couple who had been there for a while. This couple had a bigger boat with all sorts of wonderful features - rather too many of which needed repair or replacement. So when the first couple headed off to visit the wildlife parks they asked their new friends to keep an eye on their boat. When they came back, weeks later, they stocked their boat with provisions and water and were on their way. The other couple were still waiting for parts to be forwarded from the United States. Often these threads go places that render the subject lines redundant, but this one is still apt. The answer is: they visit the elephants and giraffes instead of being slaves to their technology.