Rookie Mistake

Latitude 24.70 N
Longitude 84.96 W
4/6/13 1:00 AM

When I came on watch this morning, my fellow crew member, Tom, let me know that the GPS had quit working. No problem. A quick flick of a switch and the on board navigation system is using our backup GPS unit.

But that wasn’t good enough for me. I noticed that the GPS instrument at the helm does not know to use the backup GPS, so it was displaying an error. I remembered reading in the B&G manual that you could do a quick reset of the GPS without having to turn everything else off and back on, so I grabbed the manual and quickly read the instructions and proceeded — to perform a full system reset on our navigation system!

Now, here’s the problem folks: I did this same thing once before. I was a rookie owner at the time, so I had an excuse. I should know better now…

30 minutes of flogging around in the gulf and I’ve got the auto-pilot back up and running (yippee!), but the compass doesn’t match the auto-pilot or the navigation software. I can see where we are on the navigation system, I don’t have to hand steer, and if the wind and sea Gods will allow us passage, we’ll be in the Dry Tortugas in less than 18 hours. Adjusting the nav system can wait!