The most dangerous thing on the boat is... ME. My ignorance or my arrogance could easily be my end. While in Guatemala we met a women whose friend had a fantastic saying; "I'm always certain; often wrong".

In and of itself there is no danger in any article carried or used properly on a boat. It's the human nature that causes our problems. With electronics it's just the ease of use. It's so easy to follow the little red line. So easy to not zoom in and scroll around. So easy to trust something that 99% of the time or more is correct. But, too we can get lulled into thinking that however we cruise, we are infallible. Mother Nature often shows us the errors of our way.

Trust in all the electronic gizzmos like Mark does and most likely you'll be fine. I'm guessing; though I never asked him, Mark can navigate with paper and pencil. I'm guessing he still has some of the tools from the ol' days. Even he himself called himself a Luddite. And knowing where you are roughly you can usually navigate to land without any chart.

Years ago I met an individual working for Coast Guard in Hawaii. He told me an almost derelict boat came into the Harbor from California with a hippie couple aboard. They obviously boarded the boat and checked it out. The boat owner had only a AAA map of Hawaii. That was all! They asked him how he found Hawaii. He smiled and pointed up, "Follow the Jets; man".

A smart man, a cautious man will be safe and find safe harbor. An man full of himself / herself, with charts or GPS can easily find trouble.

Ciao