IFR


IFR

So things were thoroughly socked in yesterday. We had to navigate 6 nm downriver to the race start area.

GPS is definitely a great help, but it has limitations. The new boat doesn't have any compasses installed, yet, and GPS is noticeably laggy and inaccurate at actual heading. Fortunately, I had a handheld stowed in my bag.

Spent a fair amount of time in the pulpit, scanning for markers and traffic with ears and eyes. 6 knts doesn't sound very fast, until you start doing the math to convert to fps when visibility extends between 10 to 20 yds.

Was fun playing Marco Polo to find the committee boat at the end. We were The Only Ones dedicated/stupid enough to show up. Race was eventually called off, so we tinkered a bit, and then slogged home.

Using GPS on our phones is interesting. A very feature rich experience for not much money, but touchscreens get fussy when wet, and they aren't always bright enough for sunny days. Dedicated tactile controls are hard to live without for certain use cases.

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