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Gary LaPook writes

I got the chance to book at Buckley's books, "Airborne" and "Atlantic
High" in which he discusses celestial navigation, at great length in
"Airborne." I had misremembered what he had said about his using
stars. In "Atlantic High" on page 179 he admits that he had never
mastered the stars so had to use a star finder each time to identify
the stars. So, I got it slightly wrong in that he did do star sights
but only with the help of a star finder.


gl

On Mar 2, 4:23 pm, glap...@pacbell.net wrote:
> Gary LaPook writes:
>
> It has been a long time since I read Buckley's sailing books ( so my
> recolections may be wrong) but I remember that he confessed that he
> could never learn the stars so didn't use star sights. This sticks in
> my memory since I was suprised, at the time, that such a brilliant man
> was unable to learn the stars. When I get back to California next week
> I will review those books.
>
> gl
>
> On Mar 1, 1:32 am, frankr...@HistoricalAtlas.net wrote:
>
> > An excerpt from an obituary of William F. Buckley:
> > "In the 1980s, at midlife, Buckley began to escape the tedium of politics by
> > reinventing himself as a novelist and memoir writer. His two sailing books,
> > "Atlantic High" and "Racing Through Paradise," are graceful, humorous
> > accounts of his crossings of the Atlantic and Pacific in a 71-foot ketch,
> > "Sealestial."
>
> > Norfolk photographer and writer Christopher Little first met Buckley while
> > on assignment for The New York Times in the early 1970s, and eventually
> > became one of Buckley's closest friends. In the 1980s, Little sailed as a
> > crew member and photographer aboard the Sealestial when Buckley made his
> > long ocean crossings, sharing the same bunk area with him.
>
> > "Our first Atlantic trip, from St. Thomas to Spain, was just before GPS came
> > in and Buckley was a superb navigator, using the traditional sextant and
> > star sightings to get us across the ocean," Little said Wednesday during a
> > phone interview. "In my line of work, you meet a lot of famous and charming
> > people, but Bill took that to an even higher level. You couldn't possibly
> > have more fun with someone. He told hilarious stories and shared great
> > gossip about all the famous people he knew." "
>
> >  -FERwww.HistoricalAtlas.com
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