> Would you say that it's a bad idea to mix a software engineer with a boat on the open sea? Not if one's satellite navigation system fails and one is then req

> Would you say that it's a bad idea to mix a software engineer with a boat on the open sea? Not if one's satellite navigation system fails and one is then required to reduce sextant sights to get across the ocean safely, as happened to me. I had a laptop on board and wrote a program to reduce my cheap plastic "backup" sextant's sights in a reliable and speedy way. I ended up with almost the same position accuracy from the sextant that I was getting from the failed satellite navigation system (this preceded the GPS era -- GPS is way more accurate). So from my perspective, being a software person was a distinct advantage, and I assisted a number of other sailors whose non-cybernetic navigation methods would otherwise have gotten them into serious trouble.