Johan Malmstrom wrote:
>Lighthouses only purpose seems to be be photogenic. No need for the light as
>GPS has become ubiquitous.
>
>
It would appear that you have never spent any time navigating at sea,
particularly in coastal waters in poor weather.
The key to safety is redundancy. A GPS unit can fail to operate, or
worse, give wrong results. Sure, it it the major tool, but any time one
is in costal waters with hidden obstacles, poor weather, etc., visual
fix location and radar ranging location are essential for safety. Also,
in harbors and harbor approaches, esp. at night, things can become quite
visually confusing. Lights and markers set up sight lines to keep one on
the correct heading directly, without reference to chart, GPS, etc. this
can be very important in busy, complex areas and in dark places.
Just knowing that keeping two lights ligned up as I steer will keep me
in the channel and that there are another pair at the turning makes safe
navigation easier.
US light houses have been automated, but still are all maintained. And
they still use aural fog signals. I was just listening to one a few
weeks ago in Maine. Did I mention that it was foggy in mid afternoon?
<http://www.moosemystic.net/Gallery/MPhotos/OwlsHead/>
Back when LORAN gave pretty good positions at sea, the navigator still
took at least two sightings a day with sextant. There is still something
about the sea and its weather that will sometimes defeat almost any
means of determining position on rare occasions. So the wise navigator
always uses as many as are available.
Moose
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