GPS-I'll be damned

[bluedog225]

I'd appreciate some help.

Back in June, I attempted the Texas 200. Short version, I got a little ways out, broached, got my masts stuck deep in the mud and shell bottom, lost one mast, both sails, and a bunch of gear.

One piece of gear I didn't lose was the brand new Lowrance IFinder H2O. We bought it on the way down to South Texas. My gf put batteries in on the drive down, messed with it some, and then set it aside. I figured I would read the manual and learn to use it later. I was planning on navigating with maps and was sailing in a confined body of water (the laguna madre).

I've toyed with the idea of trying to go back and salvage my sails and retrieve some of my gear but the only info I had was that we were "a couple of hundred yards North of channel marker #x." Not much help in a big bay. If my mast was no longer sticking out of the water, I was out of luck.

So I put new batteries in tonight and the thing had automatically stored waypoints of our trip. including the exact spot where we turned over. I dropped the anchor before we snapped the mast to recover and bail her out and then we sat at anchor for a couple of hours on a hundred feet of anchor line waiting for a tow. It seems to have the spot down to 0.001 seconds (?) longitude and latitude.

I'm new at this. If the length of an arcdegree of north-south latitude difference is about 60 nautical miles, (69 statute miles) at any latitude, then each minute is about one mile and each second is about 88 feet? and I've got it to three decimal places.

Would someone with more experience with these things tell me, in real life, how close is this going to get me to the spot?

The sails/lines were stuck on something pretty solid back in June (concrete, rebar, pipe?). I'm pretty sure they are still there.

I've got a week off soon and am thinking of a little salvage operation.

Thanks

Tom

[TimH]

what kind of boat was this?

[bluedog225]

Sea Pearl 21 (cat ketch) with sitka masts and full batten balanced lugs made from tanbark oceanus. Too heavy but they had a great look and feel and performed well in a good stiff breeze.

[Peter Eikenberry]

Yeah. I read about it. Quite a trip. So you were the one who got their mast stuck in the mud!

[bluedog225]

Yep. The main mast was stuck so hard that we couldn't pull it out even with the help of the tow boat. There's a pretty good chance it is right where I left it. 18 foot mast about 12 inches proud of the 9 foot deep water. The mizzen came loose but it was all chewed up from the shells in the mud.

Not my finest moment. It took me a while to figure out all the mistakes I made but I learned a lot about sailing....:D

[Peter Eikenberry]

Well, despite the problems it sounds like most everyone had a good time.

[JimConlin]

Sorry for your troubles.

So much for the argument that wood masts are preferred over aluminum because they float.

[Hwyl]

I'm pretty sure they are still there.

I've got a week off soon and am thinking of a little salvage operation.

Thanks

Tom

Should get you within 10 yards or so, perhaps better. Especially if you use the same machine.

I think you'll need good luck and I wishing you that

[bluedog225]

Sorry for your troubles.

So much for the argument that wood masts are preferred over aluminum because they float.

Tall spar over the main mast (lugs) went straight to the bottom because I had the sails running forward of the mast on a downwind run and released the sheet as we got turned on swell. Basically, the main hit the water with the trailing edge forward of the mast. Heavy winds, high speed. Spar stuck in mud, mast quickly followed. Flotation never really had a chance.

But we were able to crack the nice sitka main mast (:() and tube to get her back over....if I'd had aluminum, I would have waited hours for the tow on the upturned hull. I'm taking a saw on my next trip....

[Bruce Hooke]

In my limited experience a typical GPS is good for getting you within, as Hwyl noted, about 30 feet. HOWEVER, I think you could do a bit better since you probably have a bunch of readings from when you were stopped so you can average those readings and when you go back you can again stay in one place, or just move very slowly, and home in on the position. Realistically you probably moved around more than 30 feet while trying to recover what you could at the time. So, I think your limitations in terms of finding the gear are going to be:

a) is it still there.
b) once you are at basically the right location, how are you going to go about finding the stuff and getting it up from the bottom. If visibility is reasonably good then snorkeling might do the trick if you are good at free diving, but if you have to get down on the bottom and search a 1000 or more square feet of bottom in very limited visibility then I can't imagine doing it without scuba gear. Of course if there is stuff you can grapple for that is another matter. However, if you can get the stuff with a grapple and if you can get it free without diving down then I have to wonder if it would still be there to start with.