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An Outbound 46 hit Navutu reef in the Lau a couple of nights ago

’Thursdays Child”

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6 minutes ago, Jon said:

An Outbound 46 hit Navutu reef in the Lau a couple of nights ago

’Thursdays Child”

bdf954c8-20d1-48dd-800a-05a39f7ce8f1.jpeg

Serious question; how does this happen in a time of precision GPS and boat/course management systems?

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Plotting a course from Minerva to Savusavu 

Put in a few waypoints to go up between the islands in the Lau

However you then need to zoom in and follow the route as many things don’t show at low zoom

IMG_0396.png

IMG_0395.png

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GPS aided groundings are more common than you’d like to think

All speculation on my part at this point

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IF That was the cause, it is very poor passage planning - and that looks somewhat likely.

Situational awareness! Never relay on one source of navigational data!

Confirm your position with multiple sources, and ALWAYS do a high zoom fly through of your passage plan. Contrary to BP's position, waypoints are a highly useful navigational aid - one inserted into this route, several miles off the reef, to either side, while planning the passage would have avoided the issue. So would boundaries with alarms (easy to put around any danger points), exactly as you would on a paper chart. Radar guard zones with alarms set at a few miles would likely have seen the breakers.  Poor SOP's look to have caused the loss of this vessel.... A warning to us all. Take care out there!

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14 hours ago, Jon said:

GPS aided groundings are more common than you’d like to think

All speculation on my part at this point

John, is that Navionics? It shows up a pretty high zoom on CMAP;

image.thumb.png.97a04c1000e79c8df0d3536e325fa48f.png

 

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Yes Navionics, if you look at the two images Vanuatu Vatu is only visible in one also

all systems have there risks, it has a declutter mode effectively that drops stuff as you zoom out, I always create a route not to follow directly but to use as a reference line so I can zoom in and out and still know we are heading in the correct general direction 

I guess this is so it can be run on mobile devices I’m assuming 

I like it as I run an iPad in the cockpit and encourage all crew to use it while in watch, when I first sailed offshore navigation was a dark art that was guarded by one or two aboard and was done in secrecy way down below at a hidden table, not quite but I like all crew to be situationally aware at all times, even my 3 year old grandson can use an iPad. He FaceTimes us every few days when he gets up

The key to all systems is knowing there limitations 

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5 hours ago, Jon said:

Yes Navionics, if you look at the two images Vanuatu Vatu is only visible in one also

all systems have there risks, it has a declutter mode effectively that drops stuff as you zoom out, I always create a route not to follow directly but to use as a reference line so I can zoom in and out and still know we are heading in the correct general direction 

I guess this is so it can be run on mobile devices I’m assuming 

I like it as I run an iPad in the cockpit and encourage all crew to use it while in watch, when I first sailed offshore navigation was a dark art that was guarded by one or two aboard and was done in secrecy way down below at a hidden table, not quite but I like all crew to be situationally aware at all times, even my 3 year old grandson can use an iPad. He FaceTimes us every few days when he gets up

The key to all systems is knowing there limitations 

Totally agree. understanding your tools and their limitations is an important part of being a Skipper.

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This would be a rough basis for that passage. The red bits are boundaries - alarms go if we try to cross one. You don't have to follow exactly, but no boundaries nearby or crossed, you are good to go. Takes 5-10 mins to setup.. Its easier to do the thinking and planning while at anchor, once you've decided where you want to go. Then if stuff is going wrong, one of the primary tasks is already done...

image.thumb.png.ab7a376ce96aa2a4fb2b22466e5627ff.png

Passage planning, including boundaries and clearing marks etc, are all part of the RYA yachtmaster course, and should be 2nd nature to any skipper.

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I worry about low zoom gps losing important detail. My practice when embarking on a new or unfamiliar passage is to get out the paper chart. List the hazards and major way points expected and then transfer to the GPS. I then cross them off as I pass them.

For a night passage,  an old seadog showed me the benefit of also making a light list. Has proved worth while at least once.

 

 

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OK, here is another example - this is the same waypoint - just different chart scales...

image.png.2bf88204cd18119b28340964fe8270c6.png

This is zoomed in, this next one zoomed out to next scale

image.png.aca0e8319f085fd4adc57f9bbae37def.png

So, the waypoint has not moved! But the position of the reef moved about 2nm! The SAME issue is on the PAPER CHARTS at different scales.

Interestingly, in this case the larger chart is the correct one. Not the 1st time I've seen that. Where there is little shipping, the charts are not fully reliable.  You must have 3 data points to have a safe position. A modern digital radar would see the breakers, and can give you an overlay to show you which chart is right.... Depths and hand bearing compass could also work, as could a satellite image. This is why everything should have a clearance in your plotting - I usually use 5nm, especially at night, and especially around sunken reefs. Be careful out there!

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Yep the west coast of the Red Sea jumped about a mile east/west on Cmap at different zooms. They may have fixed that now as it was a while ago. Vavau used to move about a quarter mile.

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The good old days of paper charts.

Notes

1 this island is 1.5 nm west of charted position

2 this rock is 4 nm west of the charted position. 

3 this rock was observed in 1889 but hasn't been seen since

4 this chart needs to be moved 8nm east. 

 

Interesting most of the corrections were east/west. A guy with a sextant could determine north/south reasonably accurately but east/west not so much.

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