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53 comments on DrumBeat: May 23, 2009

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joule on May 23, 2009 - 12:37pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

ransu -

I wonder how many sea captains and their navigators are no longer capable of using a sextant and other traditional means of navigation.

Just like the number of engineers who are proficient with a slide rule is shrinking by the day. Or the number of people in western industrialized countries who can actually write a letter in legible cursive.

I have an uneasy feeling that some of these outmoded techniques and skills are going to come in handy some day.

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Bahamas Ed on May 23, 2009 - 6:05pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Been sailing around the Carabbean for the last 12 years,

the scary thing is that nowadays you can not be sure that anyone is on lookout.

Bahamas, three(maybe four) years ago, two mail boats collided off of Cat Island both on autopilot with on lookout. (few died, bunch injured)

Bahamas, two years ago, friends of mine going north on the Exuma Banks in a 45ft sailboat hit a southbound 70' Yacht. Both on autopilot and no-one on deck. (nobody hurt, both boats made port)

Ed.

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totoneila on May 23, 2009 - 6:24pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Won't that be fun when a LNG-ship collides with a VLCC in prolonged heavy pea-soup fog plus heavy seas due to no lookouts, no Loran, no GPS, no use of sextants, no shipboard radio, or even radar? Even flashing lights and/or flag semaphore is useless in thick fog, and very difficult to even find channel buoys.

It still boggles my mind that the Exxon Valdez just powered itself onto the rocks even though it had all the state of the art equipment.

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Bahamas Ed on May 23, 2009 - 6:38pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Having all the "state of the art equipment" is the problem.

It breeds the "why should I drive the ship when the autopilot can while I read my book and look outside every 20 minutes or so"

Ed

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53 comments on DrumBeat: May 23, 2009

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