Blind trust

[Daydream believer]

On 3 separate trips to Ostend my family- notably my son- has managed to put us aground on exactly the same spot on the edge of the Gunfleet sands just NE of the old LH. I know there is a shallow bit. Every time we go I tell them to watch the sounder for the shallow bit. But do they?
No. They blindly follow the GPS & blame it on the fact that I put the waypoint on the drying sand at the end of the spit. I have never moved it in the last 20 years. I do not navigate by GPS it is only for a guide if needed.
But I know it is there & I tell them every time what to do whilst I have a kip. Last time I was peeing in the heads one minute & the sink the next as the boat stopped dead & I carried on forward

One of the family sayings, oft repeated at gatherings, is: "Dad we've run aground again"- " YOU DON'T SAY". Followed by much mirth at my anger.

 

[jbweston]

When sailing in Finland, a local sailor told me they had lots of sandbanks, and all of them are granite. A Finnish joke.

The serious point being that the risk of running aground at 7 knots on a granite outcrop demands a different approach to pilotage than the risk of touching the mud on a rising tide in Poole harbour or the East coast.

 

[RunAgroundHard]

Except... Have you seen the TV programme titled "The Body Detectives" about the work of Locate International?

I have not watched the programme nor was I aware of the charity until I googled it. Perhaps you could explain the relevancy?

 

[Chiara’s slave]

When sailing in Finland, a local sailor told me they had lots of sandbanks, and all of them are granite. A Finnish joke.

The serious point being that the risk of running aground at 7 knots on a granite outcrop demands a different approach to pilotage than the risk of touching the mud on a rising tide in Poole harbour or the East coast.

Of course it does. We touch soft mud regularly, but are massively more circumspect if there are horrid hard lumpy things down there. Though the only way to get an XOD to reach 7 knots is to push it off a cliff.

 

[dunedin]

On 3 separate trips to Ostend my family- notably my son- has managed to put us aground on exactly the same spot on the edge of the Gunfleet sands just NE of the old LH. I know there is a shallow bit. Every time we go I tell them to watch the sounder for the shallow bit. But do they?
No. They blindly follow the GPS & blame it on the fact that I put the waypoint on the drying sand at the end of the spit. I have never moved it in the last 20 years. I do not navigate by GPS it is only for a guide if needed.
But I know it is there & I tell them every time what to do whilst I have a kip. Last time I was peeing in the heads one minute & the sink the next as the boat stopped dead & I carried on forward

One of the family sayings, oft repeated at gatherings, is: "Dad we've run aground again"- " YOU DON'T SAY". Followed by much mirth at my anger.

Perhaps you should move the waypoint? How many grounding does it take before your obstinacy is overcome by some seamanship and human understanding?

 

[mjcoon]

I have not watched the programme nor was I aware of the charity until I googled it. Perhaps you could explain the relevancy?

Certainly. It is just that bodies found at sea are a bit more difficult to identify than found on land. Though I was also watching the current TV series about plane crashes (am I a catastrophist?) and a survivor mentioned that anticipating a crash he tucked his credit card into his sock to assist the identification of his body. Linking nicely to mention of deaths while pulling on socks!

 

[Daydream believer]

Perhaps you should move the waypoint? How many grounding does it take before your obstinacy is overcome by some seamanship and human understanding?

Certainly not. They should understand that on the east coast one should learn to sail by compass & echo sounder NOT blindly follow a GPS track.
In fact I would have thought that good advice anywhere. On the way NE on a falling tide they could see the Gunfleet wind farm, The Old LH, Clacton, Walton, The Wallet Buoys & even the water breaking on the sands. It is a case of being spacially aware & that is what I have been trying to get them to appreciate as we head NE on a falling tide. I always have a chart in the cockpit.
As I said , the waypoint has been used as an emergency direction check. Typically at night when returning home via the Long sand Head etc.

 

[jbweston]

Certainly not. They should understand that on the east coast one should learn to sail by compass & echo sounder NOT blindly follow a GPS track.
In fact I would have thought that good advice anywhere. On the way NE on a falling tide they could see the Gunfleet wind farm, The Old LH, Clacton, Walton, The Wallet Buoys & even the water breaking on the sands. It is a case of being spacially aware & that is what I have been trying to get them to appreciate as we head NE on a falling tide. I always have a chart in the cockpit.
As I said , the waypoint has been used as an emergency direction check. Typically at night when returning home via the Long sand Head etc.

I love the idea of placing a waypoint exactly where you don't want to go. It's rather like calibrating the echosounder to read depth below your steaming light.

 

[mjcoon]

I love the idea of placing a waypoint exactly where you don't want to go. It's rather like calibrating the echosounder to read depth below your steaming light.

Waypoint Proximity Alarm

 

[Chiara’s slave]

I love the idea of placing a waypoint exactly where you don't want to go. It's rather like calibrating the echosounder to read depth below your steaming light.

Do you not know your air clearance? You could just take that number off the reading and have surface to bottom perfectly. What’s the matter with that

 

[jbweston]

I'm all for allowing us all to do things in whatever way suits us, rather than having to follow some rigid 'This is how it must be done as it's the only right way' code of skipporial (is that a word?) behaviour.

I love the way that the eccentrics among us are free to be eccentric. However I do think a skipper whose crewmembers repeatedly run him aground at the same spot might profitably spend some time reflecting on what he/she might do to help them avoid the problem.

That doesn't mean 'Do it my way', just 'Why not find a way that works better than the one you have now and make it your way?'.