Are we relying on technology too much?

As you sit on your boat, bewildered, you wonder how this all happened. You are up on the shore. The bow of your 34-foot cruiser is five feet into the bushes lining the edge of the water. Fortunately, everyone aboard is OK. Your boat is not. There is a hole in the bow below the waterline. How could this have happened?

You begin replaying the event in your head. Everything had been going great. You were at the helm, piloting the boat across the water at about 27 knots. The speed was not excessive for the conditions. Your passengers were enjoying the ride. Music was playing. There was plenty of laughter. You constantly checked your instruments – engine gauges, depth finder, chart plotter. Everything looked good.

Then, all of a sudden … Wham! You hit something.

The cabin door was open and, from the helm, you could see water rushing into the cabin. It was coming in quickly. You immediately head for shore. It was either run the boat up on the bank or experience what it is like to be aboard a sinking vessel.

You know you made the right decision to beach the boat, but you are still wondering how this could have happened. You invested in quality navigation equipment specifically to prevent situations like this. One of your passengers says they saw a log floating in the water and are certain that is what you hit. Now you are wondering why you never saw it.

Maybe you did not see it because you were spending too much time looking at your screens instead of watching the water ahead of you.

Technology is a wonderful thing, and it has unquestionably made navigation easier, especially when visibility is poor. But there is a caveat. Anytime a tool is created to make something easier, it also has the potential to become a crutch. We begin relying on it so heavily that we forget its limitations, or worse, become helpless when the tool is suddenly unavailable.

When I first obtained my captain’s license, the navigation test was done the old-fashioned way using a paper chart, compass, ruler, and dividers. It may not be practical to navigate a modern powerboat that way every day, but the knowledge still translates. Understanding how to read markers on the water and relate them to what you see on a chart is extremely important. It also gives you the confidence to use electronic devices as confirmation tools rather than substitutes for awareness and seamanship.

That confidence helps keep your eyes focused on what is in front of the vessel instead of what is displayed on the screen at the helm.

You should also consider what would happen if your navigation equipment failed. Would you be lost? Would you feel helpless? If the answer is yes, it may be time to rethink how dependent you have become on boating technology.

Recreational boating should be fun. Used properly, technology can absolutely enhance the experience. At the same time, learning traditional navigation skills and building confidence in piloting your boat can be rewarding as well. More importantly, it prepares you to better handle whatever may happen out on the water.