Hashtag Salvideo

What It Was Like to Sail Without GPS, Autopilot, and Weather Forecasts | SAL #63 CUT

August 13, 2026 · 6 min · 2K views · Pelotas

What this video covers

Adriano Plotzky meets Tony — nicknamed "Cachorro" — an experienced skipper from Porto Alegre, aboard the sailboat Madrugada, returning from the Ilhabela sailing week.0:08 Tony describes learning to sail before GPS, autopilots, and digital weather forecasts, relying instead on cloud direction, wind shifts, barometric pressure, and temperature changes to read conditions.1:07 He recounts his first offshore passage at age 16, sailing to Montevideo aboard the Alcion with Argentine skipper Roberto, navigating by paper charts and a direction-finding radio while the experienced crew barely checked his work — they had sailed the coast so many times the routes were instinct.2:07 Tony reflects that modern smartphones have erased the observational skills older sailors like Eduardo Acosta once passed down around São Lourenço and Pelotas.1:19 Separately, Adriano reports progress on the broken autopilot actuator from episode 61: a used replacement unit was sourced through Vufax at low cost, but swapping it requires removing the steering wheel, which cannot clear the cockpit seat gap without dropping the entire steering cable assembly — a problem he hopes to solve with help from the nearby Doari Vilas Boas steel-boat yard.4:00

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