A few days ago a 40-foot sailboat went aground on a sandbar off Fire Island, New York, in the fog, requiring rescue of the three men aboard. They were sailing from Georgia headed to Newport. According to one of the rescuers, “The fog really hampered their travels when they were getting up in that area. They basically ran into the beach.” Fortunately no one was hurt and the rescue was successful. This happened quite often a hundred years ago – and surprisingly still happens all too often. The difference is now that such groundings, followed by rescue at taxpayers’ expense – often putting the rescuers’ own lives at risk – are wholly unnecessary.
To be fair, I don’t know what other factors may have come into play beside faulty navigation. The media haven’t reported any details, saying only that the boaters later could not be reached for comment. Maybe there was a catastrophic failure of the rudder or other essential boat gear. Or maybe it was just, to put it bluntly, stupidity. Who would undertake such a voyage, or come even vaguely close to land in the fog, without a working GPS unit? When you can pick up a backup handheld GPS for under a $100, who would do it without a backup in case the boat’s primary chartplotter failed?
As I wrote last week, the Coast Guard rescues several thousand people very year – and a few hundred die. Going to sea without adequate navigation gear should be as unthinkable as not wearing a PFD in risky circumstances. But most of those who die, it turns out, weren’t wearing a PFD after all.
It makes you wonder. What do you think?
Comments
I had similar thoughts while listening to windsurfer demanding rescue in San Francisco Bay last week. His excuse was that the wind had died, and that he was drifting toward a ship channel. Most annoying was his demanding attitude when the CG rescue took more than a half hour even though he had only a general description of his location. Shouldn’t the rescued have to pay for the service, and wouldn’t that encourage people to be more self-sufficient?
Forget about a back-up GPS unit. The mariners should also have been plotting Dead-Reckoning courses and cross-checking the depth readings–especially if they had GPS.
One should be prepared to navigate WITHOUT GPS. One does not go on a voyage if they do not now how to navigate with pencil, chart and compass.
–on the otherhand,–the USCG is there for just such an emergency.
I agree with the previous. It is like someone who can’t do simple math without a caculator. After 8 years in the U.S.Coast Guard my frequent
observation that most incidents were a result of stupidity as well as unpreparedness even for disaterous conditions. Even today one can go aboard the bridge of a ship and see with all the sophisticated equipment there is still a guy doing it all by hand as a back-up.
As others have pointed out, GPS is not a panacea, especially since it will happily navigate you through a hazard (rocks, beach, etc) to reach a waypoint. There’s no substitute for proper navigation skills.
I find it highly unlikely to attribute this to GPS failure…and backup GPS will never address stupidity.
I would not be suprised if they programmed in a waypoint at 72 degrees west instead of 71 degrees west for their destination and never plotted or double checked any points on a chart. Since they were coming from Virginia and not Georgia they probably had a planned course that missed Montauk to the port and Block to the starboard. That is why the never reacted to the gradual depth change as they approached Fire Island.
Whatever the case I agree with the other comments here. The more pressing need is to possess basic navigation skills and continue using them. Backup GPS with the same waypoint programmed in could have resulted in the same exact error.
see this article which mentions the Virginia origination instead of Georgia. http://www.eastbayri.com/detail/128996.html
here are some pics of the boat that show that the rudders appear to be in good shape
http://www.davispark.info/dpi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi/topic/3/12.html