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Date Posted: 08:05:46 10/07/08 Tue
Author: TomH (not so paranoid)
Subject: Re: Philosophy, GPS and the sailor
In reply to: Nicky 's message, "Philosophy, GPS and the sailor" on 06:18:04 10/07/08 Tue

AFAIK - a GPS is receiver only so the satellites don't know 'who and where you are' -- but even if they did, if you were offshore and sinking you'd soon get religion and be glad that they could find you if you signaled them!

AIS with transponder on the other hand does tell them 'who and where you are' -- but that's the whole point isn't it! As far as solo offshore - AIS will become the de facto standard within a few years - as it becomes integrated with VHF sets I predict the costs will drop dramatically

Before GPS (and depth sounders) no one could do without a sounding/lead line for approaches to strange locations, even if well charted. I always have one aboard in case of battery failure.

There are few "uncharted waters" these days -- unless you sail without charts, but that will seriously limit the ports that you can call into.

Celestial from a small boat will likely be +/- 5 miles with practice (at least for me) -- good for general location finding. For getting in close in areas where there are offshore reefs, underwater obstacles, or shoaling water at entrance bars you need to know your location a lot closer than that, especially in limited visibility conditions like rain, fog, darkness. Yea, I know the 'just anchor off until things get better' argument but that's not always a realistic choice.

If you want to do the minimalist, no instruments thing as a purposeful project then Google "Marvin Creamer" ;)

Hope that helps a little,
TomH

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