NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
What do offshore recreational navigators really do?
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2005 Jun 6, 08:18 -0700
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2005 Jun 6, 08:18 -0700
Henry Halboth noted the tradition of 0800, 1200 and 2000 position reports to the captain of commercial and military ships, along with a tradition of a noon sun shot. I'm 100 years ago one could also have seen several sextants on the bridge wings of any such ship at dawn and dusk, trying to bring down as many bodies as possible to get a perfect "pinwheel" fix. These navigators had an awesome responsibility of keeping safe a very expensive ship with hundreds of people aboard, so I can certainly understand their meticulous behavior. They were also navigating large ships with long turning times and deep draft, so "whoops, there's a hazard, hard alee" wasn't an option as it might be on a smaller recreational craft A year ago or so someone told me (and, unfortunately, I don't recall who it was, so I can't go back for more details) that a recreational sailing magazine had polled recreational sailors who had made long offshore passages (including quite a few circumnavigators). Of those who regularly used celestial, the vast majority reported that they simply took morning, noon-ish, and afternoon sun shots and advanced the resultant LOPs. No star shots, no fussing at dawn and dusk, just the sun. While I didn't question my friend, I'd assume these folks might also take daytime moon shots. I suspect their theory was that in the middle of the ocean, knowing position to a few dozen miles was more than enough. I also note that in a bouncing small craft, taking a sight with any degree of accuracy is extremely difficult. Comments? Especially from anyone on this list who has made long offshore passages on a small craft?
