Why did it used to be harder to sail over deep ocean, compared to shallow waters
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Pleasure boat sailor here. Well, the biggest issue is the lack of a static reference point. You’re pretty much blind and must rely heavily on your compass and GPS to keep a straight heading. Near land, you can always say “Well point the bow towards that buoy, or hill, or this much right of the coast and boom, you’re sailing straight. If currents makes you drift, you have the shore and other landmarks to see that something is off.
In the high seas, outside of clouds and the sun, both of which are constantly moving, you don’t have a frame of reference.
Currents will affect your trajectory, and must rely on your GPS or, back in the olden days, sextan to know your position, else currents, or simply slight steering errors may cause you to drift off course. You may as well be in complete bindless as outside the stars and sun to tell you kind of sorta where you’re pointing, you have no idea where you’re actually heading. And unlike the shore, those clouds, stars and the sun, well, THEY MOVE.
That’s how the SS Atlantic sank in 1873. It was heading to Halifax for an emergency refuel, in fears of running out of coal before making it to New York. The sky was cloudy, seas were stormy. The ship drifted to the left because of currents and they ended up hitting shore rocks.
Also, seas can be rougher when off shore. Near shore, geographic features sort of dampen the swells.
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