Driving big ships is very specific skill
The don’t turn very fast and they stop even slower than they turn
You have to thinking about what is thousands of yard in front of you or what will be in front of you when you get there
One of the concepts is called the “Cone of Concern”
It simple means that everything within two points in front of you is something to be concerned with
At certain speeds the cone gets wider and the more things you have to worry about
My second ship was a high speed catamaran. We could do 45-50 knots on a ship that was 300+ feet long (three times longer than the gym)
I got a very quick lesson when I learned to drive that ship.
Speed eliminates a lot of concerns when driving big ships
My skipper simply said “When you are going 50 knots, unless it’s directly in front of you there is nothing to worry about”
When you are faster than everyone else you only need to worry about what is immediately in front of you
That made ocean navigation very easy
Sometimes I think about life that way too
Sometimes it’s good to just go faster than everyone else
Certain things don’t matter anymore when moving fast, you’ll be gone by the time they “happen”
We don’t need to be driving around like a crazy person, but speed has its benefits
The hard part is determining when to go fast
That only comes with experience, which usually comes from making mistakes
So put the blinders on and go fast occasionally, just pay attention while you are doing it.
Going faster requires hyper focus because reaction times have to be faster
But if you tend to overthink, worry, and drum up self doubt….faster may be better for you
You can always look back on the radar and see what happened behind you.
Fern
