Experience nº 3: We leave to average afternoon from the bottom the gorgeous one laughs of Arosa course to Portugal. The ChartPloter indicates everything to us until the minimum long, beautiful one detail of this and complicated it laughs full of trays of mussels, small barren islands and stumbling blocks by some sides. To govern the sailboat with the CharPloter and the autopilot is like handling a game of arcade in the PC; An authentic one to please to see as everything is agreeing to the millimeter with the announced thing by the Ploter: Harmonizations, low, channels, lights, everything agree the detail.

Experience nº 4: Past Lisbon and having taken course to San Vicente, we moved away enough of coast to the salary passed through outside the channel of merchant traffic around Lisbon. The result is that they out to sea surprised 50 miles the rest to us of a weather of the Atlantic with a very confused sea and with rompientes formed throughout. Winds force 6 and gusts of wind of 7 that did not correspond with a so worrisome sea disturbance. In this situation the ChartPloter is only anecdotal and the autopilot nonaid. It is necessary to take to the boat in manual avoiding the most threatening rompientes. most important they totally crossed the sailboat to the sea with very serious lists which put the fear to us in the body. We decide to come near to coast which was a right decision then after hours the sea tranquilized much. We could rest cast anchor in a cove very protected.  

Experience nº 5: We at daybreak arrive one night closed and at Portimao in the Algarve. Without knowing it at night and, its approach is long and complicated. The confusion of lights that are in the coast of all the colors forms and sizes makes very vague and until dangerous the arrival. But with ploter the thing changes radically. It could have moored to eyes almost closed. A tool totally fundamental and essential to arrive at ports unknown at night!  By the way, almost when arriving we saw a species of light that crossed of starboard to port by the sky and which we have still not been able to explain if a Ufo or a fluorescent dove were…

Experience nº 6: The mother of the experiences.

Several days later and after resting in port of Barbate we decided to cross the Straits of Gibraltar. We are already something tired of energetic seas and strong experiences. The meteo did not announce for today rises strong, although it is a day of shame. Only some fog banks, so that calculation departure hour to take advantage of the incoming tide.

Passed Tariff and in the middle of the influence of the incoming current of 4 knots, one begins to close the fog. The East has raised much more of the anticipated thing, until the point that the boat does not advance in front of the sea unless we put motor thoroughly. The Pantocazos is brutales, but to give the return is worse because we would have to fight against 4 knots and waves of two meters by the stern. In spite of moving to us very little or having left we completely nailed in the greatest waves, chartPloter indicate a speed to us of 7 real knots towards the Mediterranean. Now the fog is total. NOTHING is seen. We both spend spare parts of fog horns and in this way the possibility of signaling acoustic. The ChartPloter was fundamental to sail controlling bathymetries the most beaten to the coast and to avoid the central channels of traffic of merchants who we listened incessantly. Traffic Tariff advises to give the return to us since we did not take installed radar and because the conditions in the bay of Algeciras are equal of bad and with more traffic. But 4 knots against you end to you thinking it much. Past end Sheep we began the passage of the bay of Algeciras, with the heart in a fist and trying to guess any form between the fog. A merchant in his screen radar locates and turns aside his course to us. We happen so close that first we saw its castle of prow before its same prow. A quarter of an hour later a great ship lets to us hear its horn without we pruned to answer. We march slowly therefore with sufficient government but extremely kind. Now we got to hear its motors but we do not see him. In the fog it is heard very well but we do not know how close is of us. We see it suddenly, one is a great ferry and it comes in a course that could be of collision. After means second to interpret its trajectory we rectified yielding all the passage without more consequences. Moral; The radar is fundamental in certain conditions.

Experience nº 7: After the scare of the bay of Algeciras, and as the fog is persistent we decided to do night in Banús Port. It is already sufficient madness to have crossed the bay of Algeciras without Radar, like sailing at night in these conditions. To less than 5 mile of the coast the fog is made so absolutely dense that we almost do not see our own prow from the bathtub. It approximated us to the ChartPloter in a total blindness until own bocana advancing slowly by security. We more and more heard pitido intermittent of the fog horn of bocana close, without seeing absolutely nothing. According to the Ploter it was one mile, average mile, 500 meters, 200 meters, 100 meters, 50 meters for bocana and NOTHING. Only white masses by ours around. About 30 meters gray spots begin time and, people walking suddenly by the peak. Hallucinating! The exactitude and approach of the ChartPloter are total!

Without Ploter nor GPS I does not happen myself that we had been able to do but to approach us a coast by far fear and to cast anchor in are not known where in the hope of the following day.

Experience nº 8: Already in Ibiza and near precious cove DES porcs, with very good weather we sailed patches to the coast very to enjoy the gorgeous coast. Everything agrees with the ChartPloter until one of small barren islands near coast that appears in the screen simply does not exist in the reality. They have invented it!  This if that is a failure of the cartography and not of the signals satellites. Probably already he was bad in the own cartography paper from which the digitalis has been created.