Risk of GPS loss

[camaraderie]

Wind...sorry if my verbage wasn't specific enough about what I was complaining about. A large part og this thread has been about GPS and the need for Sextants and Coastal Piloting skills as backup. More recently we have those in favor of keeping Loran as well as a redundant backup on another thread.
My attitude remains that (in addition to keeping accurate paper charts and plotting as you go) GPS is all you need these days as long as you have multiple GPS's running and plenty of cheap backups w/ batteries.
This comes in for some criticism by others (damn luddites! ) but your posts which LUMP GPS and Chartplotters together (even though I know you know the difference) make it seem like there is DANGER in relying on nothing but GPS and your own eyes. The reality in my opinion is that there is danger in relying on anything ELSE other than GPS and your own eyes (which includes keeping a paper track and comparing reading from 2 GPS's to eliminate error possibility to the vanishing point.) I agree with you about chartplotters...my comments on Celestial were for others on this thread. So if you say chartplotters or CP's instead of using GPS interchageably in you posts...we can talk about them without a problem all you want.

[Pamlicotraveler]

The problem with Scott and Lydia's grounding seems to have been more fatigue and seasickness than any type of technology failure. And if you feel like you are going to lose your lunch I doubt a sextant would help that problem much. I think the lesson of their story is to keep planning and keeping abreast of your bearings when things seem to be going well. That way you can make decisions without too much required concentration when things aren't going well.

The same concept for me is to pencil in my GPS location on a paper chart at reguLr intervals, even though I have a chartplotter, and if I get sick (or the Chinese shoot down our GPS system ) I will have course to follow without having to do alot of thinking.