Modern technology is a great help to the modern voyager by sailboat. With GPS receivers we know our position on charts, displayed on chartplotters or laptop computers. Autopilots steer the boat through good times and bad. Radar spots the bad guys and the squalls. Radios allow us to communicate with our fellow voyagers and loved ones. Power generation, control, and measurement technology keep the batteries charged. But there is a hidden flaw.
One side effect of the power the microprocessor has given the designer of these miraculous servants is the option to detect errors and fault conditions, both real and imaginary, and to warn the user of their disastrous existence.
Most of the engineers who design the electronics we use in our boats have never been to sea. Given an isolated problem to solve, such as an overvoltage in a battery regulator, or an off course autopilot, they execute their task skillfully enough. And given the detection of the problem, what could be more obviously useful than to signal it's existence to the skipper with a neat little piezo buzzer? They are simple, cheap, reasonably loud, and apparently all made by the same company.
They ALL sound the SAME!! When in difficult conditions at sea, as sometimes happens, the cumulative effect of all the piezo alarms on the boat adds up to a symphony of madness.
Let me put it in perspective. On my boat there is a radar alert, an autopilot fault error, an off course alarm,an autopilot course change alert, 2 Autohelm ST50 multifunction errors, a propane sensor, battery voltage sensor, battery condition fault, GPS alarms (2), a laptop computer running several software packages, each with error reporting, and three radios each with a few beeps in certain situations.
This adds up to a minimum of 12 alarm buzzers, each of which sounds the same as the others. Now return with me to the second night of the SSS SingleHanded TransPac. The wind was blowing from the starboard side, but was very shifty, with oscillations of about 30 degrees on each side of the mean direction. The boat was heeled over and I was hunkered down at the chart table, running a VHF radio, a singlesideband radio, and a laptop computer, trying to take the evening roll call. The boat was on autopilot trying to steer a course relative to the wind, and I was feeling a touch of mal-de-mer.
Two speakers were blaring in my ears, as skippers from the boats with VHF and SSB talked simulaneously. The radar was on, with a guard band set to detect ships, as we were in the coastal shipping lanes.
Since the wind was oscillating rather rapidly, the boat was yawing , and the autopilot felt obliged to constantly remind me that it was changing nominal heading in excess of the allowed tolerance.
Beep, Beep.
A quick press of the autopilot control and that problem is solved. And then the radar detects an invading tanker at 20 miles.
Beep,Beep.
A quick press of the alarm silence button removes that alarm. I press the microphone on the SSB and call the fleet.
Beep, BEEP, BEEP!
The voltage monitor picks up a bit of stray RF power from the antenna and decides the batteries are dying.
BEEP BEEP BEEP- a fast wind shift has caught the autopilot unawares and tacked the boat. An autopilot fault, since we are in irons, and more BEEPs of protest from the off course alarm. The radar wakes up and finds the tanker again. BEEP, BEEP, BEEP. Roper on Harrier wants a competitors position. BEEP, BEEP, BEEP.
I am stabbing buttons, talking on two microphones at once, writing positions, and trying to wear ship to get the jib unbacked.
BEEP, BEEP, BEEP. It's the tanker again.
BEEP BEEP BEEP. Now the GPS has a message. "Ready for navigation" it says. Thank you.
BEEP BEEP BEEP, the autopilot has a problem.
BEEP BEEP.We can't find two boats. We call around the fleet. BEEP BEEP BEEP. The boats report in. BEEP BEEP BEEP. The autopilot has us in irons again. BEEP BEEP BEEP.
Anyway, it was a swell time. And it really brings home how miraculous the technology we use in our boats is. Just think of the wonderful things Magellan could have done if only he had had piezo buzzers.