How accurate is *your* GPS...?

[CapnK]

Probably not as accurate as the one on ol' Freebird here... He managed to literally nail the buoy 14 miles offshore of Charleston entrance... ;D

Pic scraped from FB.

[Godot]

My GPS is spot on. If I draw routes buoy to buoy I'll hit every darn one.

There is a rumor that someone with a faint resemblance to me was not paying attention for a few minutes on an empty bay with the autopilot happily tracking a GPS course, and upon looking up was startled by a massive buoy a mere few feet away. Poor bastage learned an important lesson that day. And happily didn't bend the boat.

It's real, real easy to get complacent when alone out there. And easy to get distracted when the boat is sailing itself. Add in what appears to be a buoy originated gravitational field, and if you are lucky you will only end up as an internet punchline. It takes a bit of discipline to stay out of trouble. Gotta fight that A.D.D..

[Norman]

I have met a sailor who hung a shroud of his MacGregor on a marker, at speed, and took his mast down.  He probably would have been OK if under power, but sailing and heeled put the standing rigging outside the hull.

Both shrouds broke, the mast went down bent, the boat was for sale cheap.