Robben Island ferry gets lost

All along captain Gladys had been using the numbers on the GPS as a countdown to her next tea break...
 
It's 2015 and maids are skippers today, wtf has this 3rd world coming to.

Don't quit your daily job just yet. Running a house is not running a boat.

Next we will see security guards flying SAA boeings.
 
Just a heads-up for the landlubbers here among us: Robben island might be visible from the mainland when you're looking out from an elevated point on land, but when you're in a boat on the water and you set out from CT harbour to go there you can't actually see it once you're underway, and this gets worse if there's any sort of a decent swell running. I made the trip a few times in the old prison service fast patrol boats back in the 90's and believe me you feel pretty alone when you're half way between CT harbour and the island. You're relying on your compass (and the radar if there's any mist) until you're quite close to the island. Remember Robben Island's pretty flat. Still doesn't excuse any crew from getting lost though.
 
So Joyce Mtingeni is supposedly suitably qualified but didn't use (or didn't know how to use) her compass when the Radar failed ?
And the ferry doesn't have a GPS that she could have used?
Hmmm, I wonder if the tourists got a refund.
 
Electron1 said:
So Joyce Mtingeni is supposedly suitably qualified but didn't use (or didn't know how to use) her compass when the Radar failed ?
And the ferry doesn't have a GPS that she could have used?
Hmmm, I wonder if the tourists got a refund.
Click to expand...

Quite correct re: the GPS. I think the last vessel built without a GPS was Noah's Ark.
 
If you guys even bothered to read the article, it stated there was mist (should have read 'fog')
I'm sure fog would have made a visual approach practically impossible, however I wonder why they don't have a simple GPS navigation system on board. Even google maps on a cellphone would have sufficed to get them to their destination.

Radar is primarily utilized as an anti-collision tool, and not a navigational instrument.
 
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supersunbird said:
The quality of the article is as bad as the navigational abilities of the skipper, was the journalist also fast tracked?





I know it's fixed now after being pointed out in the articles comment section, but still...
Click to expand...

Agreed. That last bit made me a bit ill...
 
It's Jan van Riebeeck's fault. He must have landed in the wrong place.
 
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