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February 15, 2013 at 10:40 am
I taught boating safety for years with the Coast Guard Auxiliary. That was back in the day when LORAN was the electronic navigational aid of choice. There was no public GPS when I started and when it first became available, it was too expensive for the average boater. We spent two nights on what we called “coastal piloting” – basically how to read charts, figure out where you were, how to plot a course to get from where you were to where you wanted to be, and do dead reckoning. I remember having more than one person tell me “I have LORAN, I don’t need to know how to do this.” My reply was “What will you do when your LORAN until malfunctions and you’re sitting in the middle of Delaware Bay?” Besides, I liked messing with charts. I found plotting courses one of the more interesting parts of navigating – even when I knew where I was and where I was going.
I’d guess the main cause of this accident was operator stupidity aggravated by speed and darkness. There was no moon Monday night at 10:30 PM so this guy was operating in darkness and going fast enough that he ended up going 250 feet into a bunch of trees before stopping. That’s quite a trick. When operating at night or during periods of restricted visibility, you never go faster than a speed you can stop in half the distance you can see.
Technology is no substitute for common sense and knowing what you’re doing.
February 15, 2013 at 1:50 pm
I guess he missed the part about “look where you are going.”
Jeez oh man, it’s dangerous enough out there without mixing in the stupid.
(Thought you’d get a kick out of that story.)