Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

Another CAG?

CAG = Computer Aided Grounding

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1208528/1/.html

In case you've never seen Late (pronounced like that high-priced coffee-like garbage), it's a pair of volcanic cinder cones, sticking out of the ocean (not significantly different than you'd imagine Madonna floating on her back in the middle of the ocean), very visible, and gives a good radar return, even though their height differs year to year due to its active vulcanism

Late, like many of the smaller islets in the Pacific, will only appear on a chart plotter if you are zoomed up into harbour scale, something not likely to be done during an ocean passage. It is accurately plotted on the charts, however.

Most likely scenario is that the crew had the chart plotter/GPS interfaced with the autopilot, the watch (if any) was below decks reading, when they t-boned the islet. This sort of thing is becoming more and more common-place, as fewer and fewer cruisers bother to learn their craft before leaving, and are lulled into a false sense of confidence by salesman.

I believe that they are going to call off the search for bodies shortly.