JEK
Senior Insider
Why Naval Academy students are learning to sail by the stars for the first time in a decade
http://wapo.st/1Og8YP7
http://wapo.st/1Og8YP7
We always carry a sextant as GPS fails, when it does, at the most inopportune moments... A classic yacht that spends much time on the quai in Gustavia always used celestial navigation, then GPS. Approaching coral reef ringed Bermuda, they had been unable to get any reliable star or sun sights, but the captain knew there was a daily 9 am flight from Hamilton to JFK. He scanned the sky for the plane... Not ideal, but a guideline and confirmation of good compass steering
:up:Well, the sextant is a great tool if you have a cloudless sky and know where the tables are and can remember how to read the stars and . . . . .
Yes, I also recall many HAM radio "conversations" (we all had to learn Morse code as well!), about the time of day, etc. I didn't fully understand until later how this worked. It did give a decent approximation....but nerves were on alert, to be sure! This was mid-70's.
Interpolation, extrapolation.... those three other things you had to do... there was a reason I was the cook and laundress.Well, the sextant is a great tool if you have a cloudless sky and know where the tables are and can remember how to read the stars and . . . . .