Do you have a compass??

[tsubaki]

For the most part we just have to run to the east out, just follow the sunset coming back till seeing land then try to figure which water towers you can recognize and find the channel or markers. This is at about 3 miles out, sandbar flats go way out!! Using the flasher type depth finder was a lot of help too.
Only problem depending on the compass would occur when letting someone drive that couldn't keep a straight heading. Normally you could expect to be within 1 1/2 miles either way when comming back from 20 miles offshore. One event left my father and another guy (who owned the boat and was driving) 15 miles off from the intended return point.
Since GPS became economical, a dash mount combo unit and a hand held backup have been my norm. With extra batteries and hand held backup VHF radio.
If a total failure were to occur, would have to rely on the above.
No compass, till you mentioned it I haven't missed it. Do remember the old days of nothing else but it, the flasher depth finder and a VHf radio. Just leave from a given location or buoy, run a certain rpm for a determined amount of time at a certain heading and hope for the best. Return trip, do a 180 on all headings!
Seems better to have one than not, currently I can't justify one.

[C YENSEN]

I always head out of the marina at a certain heading, cause I know if I head at 185 degrees it will take me to the first bouy 1 mile away with no running aground issues

[reelapeelin]

When GPS 1st came out, it gave you the compass heading and that's what you followed...it's changed now, but I still watch the heading on the compass...

[THEFERMANATOR]

Yep, I have a compass. And it is the MOST important navigational tool to have. NO boat should be without one! Wether it's just a handheld in your tackle box or a fancy $400 RITCHIE, it is the #1 thing a boat should have. I also have LORAN C and a GPS, but BOTH of them have quit working in dense fog before. The compass got me home.

[garagenc]

I have a compass, don't normally use it, I have a fixed gps and a handheld gps that goes with me everytime I go out. Both of mine are elect hook-up but have a battery back-up.

[phester]

I've got a Ritchie mounted on the helm.....don't think it's a $400.00 model but it got me back to port one night. The launch started out "misty" but we still had a couple hundred ft. visibility. Two hours later you couldn't see five feet beyond the bow. My friend [not the saltiest of fishermen]was becoming increasingly nervous.... shining my 2million candle power spotlight all over the place into the dense fog. I told him to shut up, turn off that damn light and sit down. I knew I had to head ENE and at "some point" south. Keeping an eye on the water depth and compass, finally, and hour and a half later my friend says ,"look you idiot....it's the Connecticut shoreline!!" That was my clue to head south,180*. [Rob had sighted the oil rig platform for the Long Island lighting co. and thought it was Conn.] Turned south and in port 1/2 hour later. If I didn't have that compass I would have just set the hook and waited it out. I would have had NO clue, none- what-so-ever, on which way to go in fog like that.

[THEFERMANATOR]

When your in dense fog or black dark and have to go slow, the compass in your GPS will be of almost no use to you. When you get into the nasty stuff one time, you'll see how important a compass is to have. Also remember that one electrical spike or lightning strike near you can DESTROY ALL of your electronics in a flash. You compass will still work to get you home.

[macojoe]

Here on the arm pit of the country, I just say go west, you will hit land at some point!!
Well I no have a compass at all, so I guess I will have to get one, so I at least no were West is! I can remember when GPS first came out for boating, I got lost twice, cause I knew better then GPS, I would not trust it! Now I depend on it for every thing!

[cterrebonne]

where i fish there are so many oil rigs and obstructions in the water, rocks, jetties, etc, that if my gps failed following the compass in the dark would land me into somthing hard. also you can see the lights at the port and the flare for a good ways out. better than compass