Long gone are the days when a sailor cruising alongside an unfamiliar coast had nothing but their compass and the principles of dead reckoning to go by. The age of GPS and electronic chartplotters is here, and with NOAA’s recent announcement that it would be discontinuing paper charts, it is clear that navigation has undergone a titanic shift. Far from making the fundamental principles of navigation obsolete, however, these changes reinforce just how important they are. GPS and other revolutionary electronic aids have greatly enhanced the sailor’s ability to get their position and travel safely, but they are of no …