NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Dependence on GPS
From: John Huth
Date: 2009 Oct 29, 13:53 -0400
Lu -
I'm not auditioning to become someone's navigator, mind you. The main issue is that the deck of a kayak is exposed to a very nasty environment - I've taken breaking waves that have washed just about everything off it - even stuff carefully wrapped in "waterproof" packaging.
A lot of my fellow sea kayakers share the same opinion of GPS. I'm sure it's great to have as a back-up for other vessels, but for a sea kayak, it seems like it's more trouble than any benefit. If I were in a larger motorboat or sailboat, I might carry it as a backup.
.
This is not to disparage the idea of having every reasonable means at your disposal, nor do I think that others were disparaging GPS as a concept - I think it was more the idea of unreasonable reliance on this as the only device for navigation. In the case of a sea kayaker, they have this tendency to fail, despite many precautions, getting ones advertised as waterproof etc.
In terms of current, etc - it's actually an interesting exercise to guesstimate the effect of current based on the phase of the moon etc. In this particular case, Blue Hill Bay was draining on a new moon, so we had to factor that in.
John H.
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From: John Huth
Date: 2009 Oct 29, 13:53 -0400
Lu -
I'm not auditioning to become someone's navigator, mind you. The main issue is that the deck of a kayak is exposed to a very nasty environment - I've taken breaking waves that have washed just about everything off it - even stuff carefully wrapped in "waterproof" packaging.
A lot of my fellow sea kayakers share the same opinion of GPS. I'm sure it's great to have as a back-up for other vessels, but for a sea kayak, it seems like it's more trouble than any benefit. If I were in a larger motorboat or sailboat, I might carry it as a backup.
.
This is not to disparage the idea of having every reasonable means at your disposal, nor do I think that others were disparaging GPS as a concept - I think it was more the idea of unreasonable reliance on this as the only device for navigation. In the case of a sea kayaker, they have this tendency to fail, despite many precautions, getting ones advertised as waterproof etc.
In terms of current, etc - it's actually an interesting exercise to guesstimate the effect of current based on the phase of the moon etc. In this particular case, Blue Hill Bay was draining on a new moon, so we had to factor that in.
John H.
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
NavList message boards: www.fer3.com/arc
Or post by email to: NavList@fer3.com
To , email NavList+@fer3.com
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