Yikes!
All I can say is I learned the same way you did, without GPS, and later got one just becuase I always wanted one. It makes mistakes like yours much harder to make and I highly recommend having a nice chartplotter with a Bizer chip on board, turned on, and consulted all the time. It should not replace the paper chart (I still always carry two of those), nor should it ever allow you to become complacent about your visual verification of spars. I still make it a point to get a visual on every spar I pass (if they are there, for instance, there's a black one missing at Mile Island).
|