NavList:

This is quite interesting, as it is the second yacht I have heard of in the last 3 months where "the boat got wet" heading into Gibraltar, and fried their electrical system.  The first one I heard of, however, had a sextant and a man aboard who could use it.  They needed thousands of dollars worth of repairs when they got there, but had no problem making landfall in Gibraltar.

We have seen some debate from time to time in NavList about whether GPS could either become hugely inaccurate, be jammed/spoofed, the satellites shot down or be fried by solar activity.

The truth is that there is this enormous infrastructure dedicated to keeping the GPS network functional.  But it is the easiest thing in the world to have a wave splash water down the companionway onto a nav station and short out the electronics.  Even in year 2017, the prudent small boat sailor should have celestial navigation in his skillset.

I would give a nickle to know if he had paper charts of the coast of Spain aboard, or if he was doing all his navigating from a chartplotter.

Bob