The Smoking Gun

Abemarle Sound, NC
35 57.91 N 075 59.49 W

Remember a while back when I posted an article about a "Bermuda Triangle" strange incident? Then, I couldn't say conclusively if it was a GPS anomaly or something else. Today on the GPS' trip meter, I noticed that it says MAXIMUM SPEED 124.5 KT. Aha! That's the smoking gun. It was the GPS.

Don't be alarmed if you hear that the plane you're riding on is guided by a GPS similar to mine. More expensive GPS receivers have much more powerful CPUs. I expect that failure to converge and failure to report to the user that convergence failed, is not a problem on those more expensive units. Indeed some of the best ones have both GPS and inertial navigation. Each method can cross check the other method's results.

We are pressing on to Elizabeth City today, even if we have to sail beyond sunset. Tomorrow the winds will shift to powerful northerlies and we don't want to fight them to get in to the dock.

Today is a rather spectacular day to be out on the water. We sail through periods of bright sunshine punctuated by intense rain showers. Because we can see so far, we are able to see 3-6 rain storms all the time. We managed to dodge four of them that came near us, but we got hit by two. It's fun.