Category: When things go wrong…

So Gizmo’s nifty, and now semi-permanently installed, PC charting system could have perished abruptly in a nasty mix of saltwater and glass chards.  But it didn’t.  In fact we were tied up on our float before the slow shatter of tempered glass became evident. And it was really me, not the boat, at fault.  On Memorial Day, soon after we set out for home from Pulpit Harbor on North Haven (note the link: it’s great news that MyTopo has revived the old Maptech mapserver), the running port windshield wiper went overboard with a bang.  It was blowing 20 knots Northwest right on our nose with short, sharp seas, and we were taking serious bow spray even at 7 knots, but none of that broke the window…

AIS is great, but it’s just a tool to help a skipper mind the rules of the road, including the “tonnage rule” being violated above in San Francisco Bay last week…

A captain’s nightmare: putting your 344’ Saudi-owned mega aground, rupturing a fuel tank, just off Cannes during the Film Festival. The above photo and news here, and more at PMY’s megayacht forum and yachts.monacoeye. Have there been...

That’s the Coast Guard cutter Liberty off loading some 130 (of 250) passengers from Empress of the North after she supposedly hit Hanus Rock in Alaska’s Icy Strait at 2am this morning. I’m certainly not...

This weekend a Panbo reader emailed me thusly: “How about an in-depth look at the electronics and friggin’ AIS on that cruise ship that grounded then sank???” Well, I wish I could find the...

That’s a 35’ Viking, ironically named “Lit Up”, as it became “the world’s largest flare gun” off Mayport, Florida, on Feb. 10. All six crew survived just fine, thanks to good planning and gear....

There’s no question that some boaters out there, even pros, are misusing electronics, which is why we have terms like “radar assisted collisions” and more recently “computer assisted groundings” spoken only half in jest. Now the January...