In article , Mike Morris wrote:

Sure, but sea travel is pretty basic, and we dont all stand
around and clap every time a ship docks at Portsmouth.

We don't all stand around and clap every time Intelsat or NOAA puts a
new satellite up, either - but we do clap when the QM2 or one of the
long-distance yachts come in.

We're a seafaring civilisation, but it's still a gamble (albeit a
reliable one) if you'll ever *hear* from an ocean-going ship again after
it heads out into the Pacific; there are hydrological systems we only
dimly understand that can knock holes clean through the hulls of bulk
carriers, and it's only recently been realised how cleanly a misplaced
asteroid strike in mid-ocean could flatten a ship. People still haven't
quite decided how to model surface waves yet, even...

And has been said before - but I've never checked - we have Venus mapped
to greater accuracy than the seabed...

--
-Andrew Gray