GPS cautionary tale

[hnsbrc]

A photo of a recent grounding in my home waterway, Lake Kabetogama, Voyageurs Naational Park, Minnesota/Ontario border.

Two interesting facets to this story: 1. The boater was intensely studying his gps when he grounded (bouldered). 2. The rescuer is a 91 year old local resident who used a combination of timbers and jacks and was able to remove the boat which apparantly had no significant damage. When a passerby warned him to be careful on those slippery rocks he replied that if he falls he doesn't have enough weight behind him to do any damage to himself. (He's still an active fishing guide but considering retiring soon!).I thought this story's combination of an inexperienced person's reliance on a piece of technical equipment without a proper understanding of it's proper use and limitations contrasted with an old-timer's self reliance and old time ingenuity might be of interest. Minnesota:" The Land of 10,000 Lakes, 10 million aluminum boats, and untold numbers of rookie captains".

[Bruce Hooke]

Interesting. I see this as not so much a cautionary tale about GPS's in particular, as a cautionary tale about getting distracted by things on board when you should be watching what's going on around you.

It looks like it is a metal boat, which was lucky...I'd guess that a 'glass boat would have taken a lot more damage.

[Concordia...41]

Great story and points well taken.

Granted this grounding / bouldering (love that term!) appears self-inflicted, but there are sooooooo many things that can go wrong even when you're doing everything right!

- M

[Don Kurylko]

Geez, I think a $10 chart might have been a better investment!

[uncas]

And a newbie to boating would probably ask
" What's a chart?"

[rbgarr]

Timbers and jacks. Now there's something I usually don't carry aboard my boat. Perhaps I should start!! ;>

[ssor]

Maybe he couldn't see those rocks at high tide.
I looked at my gps and goto "dock" and it gave me a nice straight line to follow right across Garrett Island.

[uncas]

ssor
Ya beat me to it. A GPS course is a straight line from A to B. It does not matter whether there is a land mass or a rock between the two points. If ya follow the course set by GPS, you may find a time when your draft exceeds the depth.

I remember a time as will Joe, Matt and Steven, powering up to Essex on the CT River. Evening..getting dark.
Now I know the river fairly well. There are some nice rocks on the chart just below eEssex. Not marked but they are there.
This smaller boat cruises past me under power. I was doing 5 knots so I can't imagine how fast they were going. Anyway, I went below and the next thing I heard was this loud, nerve grinding hlayards against the rigging kinda sound amplified, followed by the crash of dishes. This boat hit those rocks dead on....
Now I would not be surpriused if they had set a course using their GPS right over those bloody rocks.

[hnsbrc]

Using a gps map for navigation in these waters is only as good as the map and its margin of error as well as the error in the gps reading. My "Hot Spot Fishing" map I have downloaded in my GPS has many omissions of fairly major navigation hazards, but also shows underwater hazards (boulders) in spots where there are none even closeby, where I have no qualms about cruising over having gradually learned these waters. It is possible this boater was carefully watching his gps trying to avoid a non-existant hazard and ran up on this rockpile . Note the tall pole marking the hazard! I agree that there are many ways to screw up, having found enough of them myself. This fellow just happens to be on a fast learning curve. It might be a long wait for high tide here.

[Frank E. Price]

GPS "navigating" in a lake? Just how big is that lake, anyway? From the background in the photo it doesn't look like eyeball navigation should be terribly tough. Diligence is worth a lot more than any hardware, even charts. If he really didn't know where he was, he should have been going a lot slower than he obviously was; and if he was just experimenting with his GPS' response at speed, he should have been a lot further from shore. But I'm sure not gonna put any of my own "adventures" on here.

Frank

[Nanoose]

This isn't boat specific but kind of related...

I'd been running quite a bit in prep for a marathon and had been given a hear-rate monitor for my birthday so I could train "in the zone". Most of my running is on trails.

So I put on the chest strap and the watch and headed out. I bounced off a few trees because I found it watching the display on my wrist change through different efforts...

I find the same with a GPS. I tend to keep the boat headed where it tells me rather than concentrating on the best point of sail.

[hnsbrc]

This lake is part of Voyagers National Park. It is possible to cruise from my dock about 80 miles east along the US/ Ontario border without touching bottom (hopefully), and about 100 miles north and west in Rainy Lake utilizing a short truck portage at Kettle Falls for boats up to 24 feet. It is true that you are never more than several miles from some shore. However, the the hundreds of islands, bays, narrows and reefs does make navigation important. The closer one is to shore or hazards the more accurate navigation has to be. I got along fine with good maps/ compass before I started using a GPS having canoed extensively in Minnesota, Ontario, and the Everglades, but I do find it a useful aid. I use my GPS to locate where I am on the map, to locate and mark fishing spots, and occasionally to follow a previous track or to follow my track home. I have more confidence that I can find my way after dark by following my "track" (virtual breadcrumbs). There is no shoreline development thus no lights to use as navigation aids in most places here.... The analogy of bumping into trees while running is a good one. I will try not to make the same mistake while boating.
Sorry about running on in this thread that really doesn't have anything to do with wooden boats, but I suppose we could all speculate on how our boats would have withstood the incident