Of course, the caveat to all of this is that, depending on where you sail, even up-to-date charts can be anywhere from mildly off to wildly and dangerously inaccurate.
In the Keys and South and West Florida, where sand shifts all of the time, TowboatUS and Seatow do a fine business from boaters blindly following their chartplotters. Many inlets and channels in West Florida have nasty, uncharted sandbars. After Irma, forget about it. Who knows what's where? You could go aground on a sunken boat. Depth sounders and the ability to read water are more valuable navigation tools in places like this. I like paper charts because you get a bigger view. A GPS is wonderful for confirming that you are where you think you are. Still, I get the allure of all that gear. I crewed on a friend's catamaran to Fantasy Fest in Key West last fall. His electronics were several times more valuable than many of our boats. I felt like I was on the con of the Starship Enterprise. Especially when we hit warp speed (10+ knots). The only thing the electronics couldn't do was spot crab pots at night. :) Jack Brennan Former C&C 25 Shanachie, 1974 Bristol 30 Tierra Verde, Fl. Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Tab®|PRO -------- Original message -------- From: Frederick G Street via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> Date:09/18/2017 10:14 AM (GMT-05:00) To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com Cc: Frederick G Street <f...@postaudio.net> Subject: Re: Stus-List GPS, Chart Plodders and Technology when there is none
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