NavList:

   

Reply

All this discussion of lifeboat navigation prompts me to recommend two
books:

The Raft Book - Harold Gatty (very likely out of print)
Particularized Navigation - Francis B. Wright

Excellent books though written before the advent of the evil temptress GPS.
Repent ye sinners and come to the light!

Robert


----- Original Message -----
From: R. Walker 
To: 
Sent: Thursday, October 24, 2002 11:51 AM
Subject: Re: lifeboat navigation


> > jared.sherman@VERIZON.NET
> > supply of fishing parts. Then we have the case of the two men recently
> > found off the coasts of the US in their sailboats: The one man off North
> > Carolina (?) who had drifted up from the Florida Keys, the other man off
> > South America (!) who had drifted down from California, originally 26
> > miles from the US coast. Would these men have made any use of a sextant?
> > Could they have gained any aid from it? Or could they have gained more
> > substantial aid from some other device?
>
> It occurs to me what these guys really needed was oar locks and a pair of
> appropriate oars.   Adding a 1kt - 1.5kt east or west vector to their
course
> made good wouldn't have been the most elegant solution, but in both
> cases likely would have gotten them within site of land with a few days
> work.
>
> A sextant and tables could certainly provide a moral boost by confirming
> each days gradual progress, as well as potentially alerting the adrift
person
> to an unexpected eddy in the ocean currents that might by accident be
> running directly counter to the added oar provided vector.
>
> So my feeling is that the sextant and accessories necessary to plot
> position without electrical power stay on the boat; a manual PUR
> desalinization pump would probably be a better choice for liferaft
dollars.
>
>
> Richard Walker
> Conroe, TX
> http://people.txucom.net/~rwwamtek/kayak_log.html
>

   

Reply