GPS

[GODOT]

Is it cheating when sailing to use my Tom Tom to avoid the ferry routes marked thereon. I'm hoping it might mean that I don't have to use advanced technology like AIS and radar. For other types of steamship I'm quite happy with my ear trumpet which is amazingly directionally accurate.

 

[Sans Bateau]

I think Iangrant may be interested to hear of this breakthrough in technology.

 

[FullCircle]

Is it cheating when sailing to use my Tom Tom to avoid the ferry routes marked thereon. I'm hoping it might mean that I don't have to use advanced technology like AIS and radar. For other types of steamship I'm quite happy with my ear trumpet which is amazingly directionally accurate.

Is the ear trumpet connected to the Tom Tom, then you could plot audio detected steamships as a point of interest, and steer directly toward them. After all, if you do that, by the time you reach them, they will have gone. Unless they are anchored, which might be a bit of a glitch.

My Tom Tom is fitted with a clearly audible Yoda - 'Turn Right, you must!'

 

[timbartlett]

Not cheating ... but what makes you think that the ferry routes are mapped accurately? I'd be surprised if Tom-Tom's mapping takes account of the traffic separation schemes and shallow patches that force ferries to deviate quite a long way from the straight line (or artistically-curving) routes shown on most land maps.

 

[colingr]

Not cheating ... but what makes you think that the ferry routes are mapped accurately? I'd be surprised if Tom-Tom's mapping takes account of the traffic separation schemes and shallow patches that force ferries to deviate quite a long way from the straight line (or artistically-curving) routes shown on most land maps.

I think he's joking.

But who can tell on here

 

[jhr]

Is it cheating when sailing to use my Tom Tom to avoid the ferry routes marked thereon. I'm hoping it might mean that I don't have to use advanced technology like AIS and radar. For other types of steamship I'm quite happy with my ear trumpet which is amazingly directionally accurate.

Should be fine. My Tom Tom provides an excellent audible signal:

 

[Sandyman]

Sounds great. Where can I buy one of these Tom Tom things ??? will it work in conjunction with my maps of the Med & North Atlantic ??

 

[colingr]

Always worked well enought for me

 

[roy-the-boat]

tom tom beter than nowt
BUTT feries routs are not at all acurate they are only a guide for motorists and not many of them at sea. But i once saw a robin reliant atempting a channel crossing

 

[SimbaDog]

How about if you wire the Tom Tom into the autopilot & then instead of it telling you to turn right in 100 metres, it could actually turn the boat, thus saving you having to do anything seemples.

On further thought if you take it to conclusion you could perhaps get it to fire up the windlass & drop anchor when it say's you have reached destination!

 

[Twister_Ken]

Scuse me, but on more than one occasion I've taken position lines from ferry wakes, x-channel in the days before decca and satnav. A copy of the the channel ferry timetables was a useful thing to have in the chart table. You needed to make sure which ferry it was, as it it could be embarrassing to confuse the Portsmouth-Le Havre with the Southampton-St Malo.

 

[bilbobaggins]

on more than one occasion I've taken position lines from ferry wakes ....You needed to make sure which ferry it was, as it it could be embarrassing to confuse the Portsmouth-Le Havre with the Southampton-St Malo.

That's my kind of navigator!

And don't forget the heli-choppers heading to/from the Isles of Scilly!

Then there's getting a WiFi mobo signal from the MV Armorique as she passes en route to Roscoff, calling her up by cellphone, and asking for a fix!

And encountering a continuous 2-way stream of nose-to-tail merchant vessels about halfway between the Ushant TSS and the Finisterre TSS,. then crossing that LOP with a mid-morning sun LOP, for a 2PL fix. Probably the most accurate of the week's trip......