Apr

16

My best friend's boat, Hanai O'Kalama, is a tough hi powered hi tech fishing vessel rigged for surf/fish exploration in rough water. Its equipped with the best GPS,fish finders, and auto steering and the best fishing gear. We left port in the evening looking for Opelu, a small sardine like fish. Oddly, the porpoise have learned that the sound of the fish finder sonar means free meals, so we have to turn off the sonar to avoid the smart adaptation to hi tech by the porpoise.

Heading up north in the complete blackness was only possible with the GPS with a strange glow running through the pitch black sea like a space ship. The mind can play tricks making you want to turn into the shore, where sure disaster awaits. Instead the navigator must stick to the instruments, and plot the course on the GPS. Several hours later, early in the morning we arrived at a remote anchorage surrounded by rocks and reefs with a narrow pass and head in the blackness following previously set way points on the computer charts and arrive within feet of the perfect spot. This was not possible even 10 years ago. The point is that one must rely on the proper tools and computer data and way points to navigate safely in dangerous waters. It is not enough to rely on the senses or the intuition even after years of navigation in those situations. It is beyond the human ability to navigate in such conditions without the hi tech aids. One has to avoid the quirks of the mind that would lead one astray. Such lessons are good in today's markets as well.

Nor is it enough to rely completely on the hi tech aids. My neighbor in his 55 foot boat had his GPS and autopilot on coming back from Maui at night, and either fell asleep or the GPS was wrong and he ran the boat up on the reef and ended up in the water luckily only losing his lifelong boat. On Hanai O'Kalama, the GPS is not connected to the auto pilot for that very reason. It lulls one into false security or overconfidence. It is better to stay at the helm and keep an eye out for those things that the machine cannot see or know, Like the whales jumping out of the water and stuff floating around in the water.


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3 Comments so far

  1. david higgs on April 17, 2008 3:53 pm

    if only bottom fishing the ocean of markets was as easy as fishing the sea for sardines with the best equipment money can buy. why just today i lowered my hook to 1357.25 and the school of bounty never swam lower than 1358.50 only to shortly break water about my boat at 1370.25, i swear sardines carry a grin upon their fish lips. tell me what equipment can fix that!

  2. Ronnie Mashburn on April 19, 2008 2:41 pm

    Any experienced mariner knows his best safety device is his eyes and alertness. Having fished in the gulf of mexico in days when the instruments were not sophisticated we still knew where we were and how to get home. I am not a trader but suspect the old ways may still work there if the effort needed was given.

  3. Christopher Tucker on April 27, 2008 10:00 am

    Advances in navigation technology have had similar dangerous effects in aviation. Consider two aircraft operating on opposite courses on the same route. Older technologies would have placed these two aircraft within a couple miles of each other as they passed, today they will be within thirty or so feet. If a situation arises where these two aircraft happen to be, for whatever reason, at the same altitude, the chances of a collision are near 100%. This is exactly what happened on October 2nd, 2006 in Brazil, when an Embraer Legacy collided with a Gol Airlines Boeing 737. Many older or more experienced pilots will routinely offset their course to the right by one or two thousand feet to prevent this situation from occurring. This is especially important in non-radar environments where controllers cannot actually see the aircrafts position or altitude.

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