Telephone magic

[Auzzee]

I just received via email from the US magazine Cruising World, a list of Christmas specials.

Two or three items on the 10 item list talk of phones. One is an emergency phone, one is a protective case for your phone and another is a GPS thingy.

The blurb in a couple of cases suggests that smartphones are the 'ants-pants' in navigation sophistication for the serious sailor.

Given the 'apps' available from tidal data, electronic compasses, through GPS, mapping and nav features, and the level of connectivity; is the time coming (or indeed has it already arrived) where smartphones and a few peripherals are all that is now needed to navigate safely, the waterways of the world?

Plug in a depth sounder, radar array and AIS and fill your boat with all the goodies for just a few hundred, instead of several thousands or dollars.

Not being the most pliable and accepting techie, I remain very cautious...but then again, the gold standard for comms just a few years ago was a valve radio at sea, and a telex onshore.

To paraphrase a quote from a very old guy whose tradesman son's birthday is soon to be celebrated:
"Quo vadis nauta domini "?

PS. I would have used classical rather than biblical latin, 'quod est in vestri posterus nauta homo', (what is in your future sailor man), but I'm not a homo.