Any doubts about the effectiveness of a virtual platform to host a tri-chapter Fleet meeting were thoroughly dispelled Thursday, January 14. The topic of navigation device choices was addressed with special attention to Open CPN, a mature, open-source Chart Plotter Navigation program. After Daragh Nagle discussed the broader topic of devices and systems available to the offshore sailor with their advantages and limitations Darren Bos and Ken Russell dove into Open CPN. They shared their understanding of the program and its various applications to the task of route planning and navigation including downloading weather assets.

The prelude to this very informative discussion was Sarah Hanna’s Show & Tell item: her home-made recording barometer. This device was a cool demonstration of what can be done with some of the high-tech ingredients available to those of us who have the inclination to tinker with them.

Seeing what Sarah accomplished and hearing how Open CPN has improved over the last few years, becoming a valuable tool all sailors can take advantage of, gave the group an appreciation of the possibilities available to us in our preparation to pursue our dreams.

To remind us to maintain our humility Daragh did a little bragging about his Bent Mast Award.