• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • My Account
  • Cart
  • Contact Us
    • Shipping Policy
    • Refunds and Returns
    • Terms & conditions

Sailing Britican

Learn to Sail with Confidence

TwitterYoutubeFacebookLinkedinPinterestInstagram
  • Home
  • Get Sailing Experience
  • Delivery Assistance
  • Sailing Books
  • Sailing How To’s
    • Buying A Boat
    • Checklists
    • CopperCoat
    • Destinations
      • Atlantic Crossing
      • Bahamas
      • Bermuda
      • Caribbean
      • Florida
      • Mediterranean
    • Electrical Systems
    • Getting Started
    • Safety
    • Kids On A Boat
    • Life Aboard
    • Maintenance
    • Major Upgrades
    • Making An Income
    • Marina Life
    • Our Journey
    • Organization & Cleaning
    • Passage Planning
    • Sailing Gear
    • Sailing, Maneuvering, & Mooring
    • VHF
  • Sailing Gear

A lesson on using common sense rather than relying on a plotter

June 4, 2014 7 Comments

Share
Pin1
Tweet4
WhatsApp
Print
Email
5 Shares

Relying on a plotterThis story is somewhat embarrassing to admit but it demonstrates a very important lesson; with so much technology available today it’s easy to ignore the obvious! It also highlights that if a moron like me can set sail around the world, anyone can do it!

First let me set the scene in regards to relying on a plotter (GPS navigation system)

Our plan was to sail from Santa Maria de Lucia, Italy to Palaiokastrita, Corfu in Greece. The journey was estimated to take about 12 hours. We left our anchorage at 2am so to give us ample time to find a mooring in Corfu in the daylight. My husband and cousin got up while I stayed cozy in bed. Around 7am I took over and enjoyed a fantastic sail all by myself. It was bliss to be alone with the open sea all around me. It was also the first time I sailed our boat alone – yikes!

The weather was overcast, the seas were flat and the journey was quiet

Fortunately there was enough wind to have both sails out and achieve around 4 knots.

At one point I had two tankers lined up to eventually cross my bow. I couldn’t figure out how to work the plotter. There’s a way to look up ships and it will tell you if you’re on a collision course or not. It also tells you when the ship will pass and how many miles it will miss you by.

Well, I just couldn’t figure it out – perhaps because I was still waking up – so I diligently watched these two tankers that seemed miles away eventually pass in front of me about ½ mile away. If nothing else, it gave me something to do.

Suddenly, all the computer systems started beeping

From what I could make out, we lost GPS signal for a minute and then it came back. I just pushed buttons on the plotter and several of the other computers – things eventually stopped beeping. I then noticed that our estimated time of arrival (ETA) got longer or remained the same. When I took over my helming stint the ETA said we had around 5 hours left and an hour later of sailing it still said we had 5 hours to go.

I felt as if my efforts to get us to Corfu were useless

Looking at our speed, and relying on a plotter, we were doing 3.5 to 4 knots but our ETA wasn’t reducing. I started to panic slightly and thought, ‘OMG, we must be going backwards – perhaps there’s a tide or current pushing us?’

Being a naïve moron, I pulled in the headsail (it’s not hard – there’s a button to push!) and started the motor so to use our engine to reduce our ETA

I didn’t want to be floating around the Ionian Sea all day! A while later the ETA still remained around 5 hours.  My husband woke from his rest, joined me in the cockpit, pushed something, said, ‘Did you loose signal?’ and then the ETA dropped to 2 hours!

Apparently, when we lost signal the tracking system stopped

My husband then asked me, ‘why are we motoring – there seems to be enough wind.’ I had to tell him that I’m a goofball and didn’t realize that our ETA was incorrect – I thought the tide, or something, was pushing us further away. Ironically, I noticed an island next to us come and go so that should have proved to me that we were certainly progressing in a forward manner.

I learned a big lesson – if the equipment doesn’t seem to be giving you accurate information, check it out before using it to base your decisions on!

That reminds me of a funny video you can watch on YouTube. It’s about a US naval ship radioing what seems to be another ship telling them to divert course. The other vessel keeps coming back on the radio saying that they can’t move. It goes back and forth for a while with the naval officer becoming increasingly annoyed (and trying to throw his power about) and then the naval officer discovers that the other ship is a lighthouse! Hehehe.

My wifi isn’t good enough on the boat right now to play this video but I think this is the right one. Watch below:

Share
Pin1
Tweet4
WhatsApp
Print
Email
5 Shares

Tags: common sense, Mistakes, plotter, sailing, technology Categories: Passage Planning

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Joanna says

    June 4, 2014 at 2:37 pm

    haha. A classic example of how overly reliant on tech. we’ve become!

    You’re looking nice and tanned. 😉

    Reply
    • Kim Brown says

      June 4, 2014 at 2:44 pm

      Wow…you are quick Joanna! Hehehe…you must be bored. Yes – I’m a moron but yes, I’m getting tan. Woooooo wooooooo. At least I can laugh at myself – eh?! Hope you are doing good 🙂

      Reply
      • ANdrew says

        June 4, 2014 at 10:19 pm

        Love reading your stories! 🙂

        Reply
        • Kim Brown says

          June 5, 2014 at 6:43 am

          Thank you Andrew. I’m missing you 🙂

          Reply
          • Al says

            May 17, 2020 at 10:58 pm

            Hi Ms. Kim,
            Are you still available in the Charleston area, to speak with two people interested in the live aboard life? We are presently stranded inlanders but love Charleston. All we need is an excuse to drive there for the weekend.
            Warm Regards
            Al and Susan

          • Kim Brown says

            May 19, 2020 at 10:29 am

            Hey Al And Susan. We’re actually way down in Grenada now. We often visit Charleston by car when we visit the states but I’m not sure when we’ll next be able to travel! The airport down here is closed 🙁 I have a section on our website all about liveaboard life. Check it out here: https://sailingbritican.com/category/life-aboard/ Thank you for writing. Smiles, Kim

  2. Ken says

    September 3, 2015 at 11:06 am

    iPads rule for navigation.

    Ken

    Reply

Leave a Comment Cancel

Disclosure: We only recommend products that we use ourselves and all opinions expressed are our own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, we may earn a small commission.

sidebar

Blog Sidebar

Get Sailing Experience

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCH_OO7F0tE

Book Your Sailing Experience

Click here for: Full details, pricing, and application form here.

Must-Have Guides

Checklists For Sailors

VHF Radio Checklists For Sailors

Sailboat Buying Guide For Cruisers

A Sailing Cruiser's Guide To Making Money

Britican Experience

Sailboat Liveaboard Sailing Experiences

Free Guides

50 Suggested Checklists

Becoming a sailing cruiser

10 Steps To Buying A Sailboat

Electrical System Audit

Boat Safety Checklist

This Might Be Of Interest…

Recent Posts

  • Sailing the Bahamas – US East Coast to the Bahamas: 22 Action Steps February 25, 2025
  • Anchor and Rode Checklist – #1 Best Sailor’s Guide to a Good Night’s Sleep February 11, 2025
  • Sailing Away with Your Family: 1 Easy Step to Getting Started February 1, 2025
  • Why a Dedicated Boat Knife Is A #1 Must Have August 5, 2024
  • Boat Cruising: Your Guide to Smooth Sailing and Endless Adventures July 29, 2024

Nautical Gift Store

Footer

Contact Sailing Britican

We help people find adventure and freedom by becoming sailing cruisers. If you would like to get in touch or having any questions, call or email us!
WhatsApp: +1 910 403 3067 Email: info@SailingBritican.com

Sailing Guides Payment Info

We accept PayPal and all major credit cards including Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, JCB Diners Club, credit and debit cards. Transactions are performed via a SSL server to ensure your safety.

Credit-Cards

Sailing On Social Media

TwitterYoutubeFacebookLinkedinPinterestInstagram

Statements

  • Cookie Policy
  • Privacy Statement
  • Refund and Returns Policy

Site Developed by Gary Fox

Sailing Britican, All Rights Reserved

Manage Cookie Consent
We use cookies to optimize our website and our service.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
Preferences
{title} {title} {title}