Anyone else sail naked?

[MarcusJtown]

Not what you think...

I sailed out to Block Island over the weekend, about 12 miles offshore. The only navigation equipment I have is a compass, charts, and a basic handheld gps. I plot my courses out before I leave and write them in a small notebook that I keep in my pocket. Once I got out of the harbor on Thursday, the fog rolled in pretty thick. Probably less than 100 yards visibility most of the way. At most of my waypoints, I could hear the nav aids (whistles, bells, etc.), but never saw one of them. I checked the gps occationally and stayed on the radio talking to the other traffic. Never saw another boat until I got out to the island and the fog lifted.

My neigbors at the marina that night could not beleive I sailed out solo, and with no radar. When I told them I just stayed on the radio and made frequent securite calls, one even asked what channel you do that on! (I will add that the neighbors were a couple of cabin cruisers and a high performance offshore).

So the question is, does anyone else sail without all the gadgets?

 

[mherrcat]

Apparently this sailor does:



Oh...you meant "figuratively"...

 

[Jeff Asbury]

Used to sail naked, wearing even less.

Used to sail naked, wearing even less. The boat's my father had in the 60's, 70's & 80's didn't even have a VHF. We used dead reckoning all the time. Just a chart, tide chart, compass and a bell and horn for the fog. I remember crossing the Strait of Juan de Fuca from Port Townsend to Victoria, BC and being amazed to find Victoria right there after crossing the 20+ miles in the fog. I also remember hearing the sounds of the freighters as we crossed. That was back in 1979, but I had a more recent experience in 2001 crossing the Santa Barbara Channel from Santa Cruz Island, where I had a non functioning GPS and crossed in some real pea soup. Once again dead reckoning, but I did have a chart & VHF and communicated with Vessel Assist for a lot of the 18 mile crossing. When Vessel Assist was finally able to approximate my position based on the time and point of my departure and approximate speed after about 4.5 hours, they told me to turn due East, about a minute after that I could see the harbor entrance. I also heard the ships as I crossed. I must admit I am spoiled by all the technology I now have, like radar, autopilot & GPS, but I prefer it now as well.

If you really want to sail naked, try it without the compass.

 

[McGinnis]

Perhaps too frequently?

I used to sail quite often in Santa Monica Bay sans much more than a VHF and compass on my E-27. Even frequented Catalina in such conditions.

When I picked up my 38 in Monterrey, I sailed into Half Moon Bay (at night) and then Half Moon Bay to San Francisco with nothing more than a handheld GPS.

Makes me wonder why I'm putting so much money into electronics now.

I did hear of a couple of guys who sailed from San Francisco to Mexico using just an iPhone.

 

[Morgan Stinemetz]

Sailing naked

I found, a number of years back, that I could synch my GPS with my computer. The GPS would input my position and the charts on my laptop showed a boat icon and where I was in relation to aids to navigation. It was extremely helpful in the thick fog I was operating in. Visibility was less than 50 yards, and I was in the ICW in Sarasota Bay. I hit all the marks spot on and by the time I got to the end of the bay the proximity of land had burned off the fog at the small inlet I needed to pass through. I felt rather smug in that a power boat attached itself to my wake and followed me all the way down the bay. Never have had radar.

 

[Morgan Stinemetz]

Sailing naked (again)

By the way, Vikings, I am the guy with the Ericson caps, and I have a bunch. E-mail me @ mstine7611@earthlink.net. Can send pictures of what I have and pricing. This may be my last go-around with this, so if you are interested, get in touch. Thanks.

 

[Sven]

Compass, chart, fog horn ... nothing else in all the years we've sailed in Sweden. That includes the honeymoon sail down the Baltic coast 34 years ago, some in fog

Oh, binoculars too of course !

-Sven

 

[Jeff Asbury]

Compass, chart, fog horn ... nothing else in all the years we've sailed in Sweden. That includes the honeymoon sail down the Baltic coast 34 years ago, some in fog
-Sven

No Tide Chart?

 

[rwthomas1]

GPS in any form is cheating! Seriously though, while I can do the dead reckoning thing, and a basic GPS will put you lat/long anywhere in the world, I love the technology. GPS is great it shows you where you should be, but radar shows you what you WILL hit. I'd rather have radar than a GPS if I had to choose.
RT

 

[Sven]

No Tide Chart?

No measurable tides in the Baltic.



-Sven

 

[steven]

Intracoastal from Annapolis to Key West, and all over the Chesapeake with paper charts, compass and depth sounder. Still mostly use (and enjoy) paper charts on the Chesapeake. I would feel blinder than a bat without depth. Can't imagine how Captain Cook did it.

Have navigated in pea soup in the Carolinas using depth sounder and chart - steering to a depth contour. Amazingly it worked.

Back in the stone age, used an RDF from time to time.

Thinking of getting night vision optics.

Personally, I wouldn't sail out of site of land without electronics and at least one independent backup navigation system.

 

[windjunkee]

Indulge me for a moment while I recall a delivery I participated in from Sausalito to Long Beach.

It was a glorious day when we left Port San Luis for Long Beach. Visibility was easily 50 miles or more. There was a LONG, large swell from the northwest and the winds were light. The delivery skipper wore his handheld GPS like an extra appendage. The other delivery crew was also never very far from his handheld. I was on the helm, enjoying the gorgeous conditions as we slowly rounded Point Conception.

The skipper came into the cockpit and looked at me. I was driving the boat without my handheld GPS. The utter HORROR! He looks at his handheld and looks at me, looks at his handheld and looks at me. He was obviously highly agitated.

After about the fifth time he consulted his GPS, he asks me "do you know our course?" I say "yes". He pauses, "are you sure". I don't flinch "yes, I'm sure".

He pauses again, consulting his GPS again. "Okay, then, tell me ... what is our course?" I look up in the crystal clear skies and motion to the hills that make up Pt. Conception and say "stay to the right of those MOUNTAINS OVER THERE."

It shut him up for a while.

Jim McCone
Voice of Reason E-32-2 Hull #134
Redondo Beach, CA

 

[Morgan Stinemetz]

Approval

Mr. McCone:

That is bloody marvelous! Way to go.

 

[Jeff Asbury]

Nice Jim!

 

[Tom Metzger]

Damn, I'm getting old. I never did much deep water sailing, but what I did included a six channel VHF, a sextant, and a multi band radio with a direction finding antenna. I never figured out how to connect the sextant to the laptop which wasn't invented yet. :nerd: We still found the little island in the big ocean.

Lots of people did it with less than I had for hundreds of years. We ARE getting spoiled.

 

[Martin King]

I'm feeling old too. We used to cruise with nothing more than a compass, chart, and dead reckoning. No GPS, chartplotter, radar, autopilot, or even a radio! Back then,
an RDF was high tech! When we brought our new to us 31 back from baja, none of the electronics worked except the depth sounder. Still managed to make all our
landfalls using the charts, a watch, and our brains.

 

[Emerald]

Remember when we started to do some coastal stuff, and Dad finally bought the RDF. That was just so cool and high tech!