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Don't you remember the first time you went out of sight of land on DR?.... the relief of getting a proper fix again was quite a thing...... ...but imagine if that experience was the first time you'd ever navigated traditionally?......Maybe i'm overplaying it (a little bit intentionally), but just trying to make a point...

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I do think you might be overstating the difficulty a bit - the problems I recall were always far more visibility related than skill related. Where there are visible landmarks, being unable to use then to work out where you are would require mental slowness that borders on disability IMHO even if you'd never even seen a boat.

I can see what you're saying though, I set off P'mth to Poole the other week, I felt I didn't need the GPS on for that trip and left it off. The viz closed in and in minutes I came over all nervous and went down to turn it (and the AIS) on. We've become addicted to knowing exactly where we are these days in a way we simply didn't used to be in the 'good/bad old days'.

Edited by WindFinder (15/05/2008 20:57)

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