GPS assisted disasters?

[AuntyRinum]

Interesting thing happened a few weeks ago during the Trafalgar 200 festivities.
A mayday call was made in the Solent when somebody said they had a fire on board. Coastguard responded and asked for position, and the mayday started to read out a lat long, presumably from a GPS. Before finishing the lat long the radio went dead. Coastguard now had no idea where the casualty was until someone radioed that they could see a boat on fire in Stokes Bay.
If the casualty had started with "I am in Stokes Bay" instead of the lat long rigmarole, a lifeboat would have been there far more quickly.
Before GPS a position would have been given on the basis of a bearing from X or “I am two miles SW of Y”. Much quicker than reading out a lat long and conveying the info quickly.
Perhaps the ability to read out a lengthy lat long because you can is dangerous!

 

[Rustyknight]

P'raps a good reason to fit a DSC radio then........

Technology won't stand still just because the "old ways" worked fine, and as technology improves, the more we're forced to use and update it.

 

[graham]

Agree totally.How many will bother plotting a lat/ long but if you knew immediately you were close by you would be able to offer assistance.

care has to be taken though as names of Bays and beaches may not be on the chart also locals sometimes have there own names for bays ,rocks etc.

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

Surely its good practice to always give a verbal description of your location anyway.... regardless of whether you have GPS or not?

Likewise, I always notice when someone is using GPS when they give their location to 3 decimal places..... useful if your looking for a buoy maybe, but hardly critical to locating a vessel on fire surely?... me... I'd be getting the thing over and done with so that I could concentrate on staying alive!

 

[starboard]

Would suggest the best practice would be a quick description of area if known!!! i.e. Stokes Bay followed if time permits by an accurate Lat/Long as read from the GPS. If listening to call on ch16 as you sail along merrily without a care in the world you may respond to the words Stokes Bay and take an interest in the Mayday call more so than hearing 5432.70N 00426.50W read out over the radio

 

[Magic]

Newbie Alert! (me not you!)

I work on the basis I can still add up in my head, a calculator is just an easier option. Point being still think you need to be able to do it the old way.

That said, experience is something you can't buy. In situation like these its easy to (with lack of experience) let the situation get on top of you. Here I advocate common sense.

Simple option (taken from my walking days) say what you see, the likely hood is locals will be responding and will know the area. Then fall back to GPS/DSC.

It is easy to depend on technology and DSC, IMHO, runs the risk of making people dependent, but until your in the situation its hard to say, and I haven't been yet, so will bow to those will more experience.

 

[powerskipper]

If you can see a charted object, it'S OK to say something like "south of Needles light house, 2 miles" Then in the follow up conversations your exact Lat and long.
This gives an idea of what kind of vessel they need to use to assistance you,

 

[Talbot]

trouble with the range bearing argument, is that in the heat of the moment it is very easy to join the reciprocal club. However agree that an initial "in stokes bay in position" would have solved that problem.

 

[cgull]

I am resisting buying a car navigator for similar reasons, its best to know where you are from observation.

 

[tome]

Recent Pan Pan

I heard a panpan recently with a small yacht who had lost their forestay in a lumpy sea south of IOW.

The first lat/lon was clearly incompatible with their reported position south of needles. Successive positions put them closer to Bembridge and the lat/lon turned out to be a waypoint rather than actual position.

 

[Evadne]

I've always thought that the whole point of navigation is so that you know (a) where you are and (b) where you are going. I sail the same waters every time I go out, and although I do take fixes I think a far more useful skill to cultivate is the ability to look out of the cockpit and put your finger on the chart with confidence and say "here I am". Sometimes I even get it right as well. Like the story of the navigator, I'm not sure if it was Blondie Haslar or Uffa Fox, who was called on deck to get a fix after 2 days of drifting in the Channel in the fog. He sniffed the air and said "Downwind of Cherbourg".
Knowing your exact lat and long is irrelevent, unless you keep the lat and long of all hazards and features stored in your head as well.

 

[dulcibella]

Most shipwrecks happen to navigators who knew where they were but happened to be wrong. Healthy scepticism would recommend two sources of info - GPS + looking out of the window.

 

[Evadne]

Very true. I supppose GPS tells you where you are, but you also really need to know where everything else is.

I remember a Peyton cartoon in the eighties, HMCG radio operator working a mayday says to his boss: "Yacht's name is 'Decca', they are a bit hazy on exactly what the problem is, but they know their lat and long to three decimal places."