Posted on 09/10/2009 9:03:30 AM PDT by Oztrich Boy
There shouldn’t be a question about Jessica. She is almost home and no canal passages.
http://www.jessicawatson.com.au/index.htm
Very brave girl!
There shouldn't, but there always is.
IIRC, I was writing that as a ironic comment on the attitude "Joshua Slocum couldn't use the Panama canal, so later voyages transiting Panama aren't circumnavigations at all".
With Jessica it will probably be "She only rounded 4 of the 5 Capes that Chichester/Robin Knox-Johnston did"
She's already catching flak for "being Sponsored" (The King of Tonga refurbished Slocum's boat, for Poseidon's sake), "it's not unassisted of she didn't build the boat by herself, with tools she made herself, never having learned anything about boat design", and having a sat phone and modern nav equipment and not doing it in the "traditional manner".
Although I can't prove it, I would not be surprised if Captn James Cook got criticized for taking a chronometer with him "Real sailors navigate on latitude alone, dammit!"
My feeling is "a sailor uses the technology of the day, but doesn't rely on it". Jessica, like Kay Cottee before her used the satellite navigation available, but they both carried a sextant in a locker, just in case.
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