NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Brad Morris
Date: 2015 Jun 18, 00:00 -0400
Hear Hear Francis! Spot on. EPIRB is the best emergency system to have. Why "navigate" when what you want is being located and extracted by qualified Coast Guard personnel. The EPIRB can have a satellite up link with current GPS location transmitted, automatically. Some have a radio beacon (120Mhz?) broadcast for the CG for pinpoint RDF when they get close in.
Celnav is a wonderful topic to explore. But in extremis? today? Not likely.
I note that nearly all of the examples of emergency celnav navigation offered are no later than WW2.
The question really should be: Has anyone used celnav for emergency navigation SINCE THE DAWN OF GPS, in the manner and form intended.
Even Cmdr Worsley's spectacular feat of navigation in extremis is now 100 years old.
Brad
To be quite honest. In extremis, in a life raft or dinghy, probably with innocent family and children aboard,(maybe injured?) I would likely activate the waterproof and largely bullet proof £150 personal epirb, which me plus all my crew each carry. That will tell Falmouth Coastguard exactly where we all are in the world to the nearest few meters and they will expertly organise the rescue.
Job done.
This Celnav is a hobby. (Good one though!)
If I was on my own mid ocean, (like a few years ago) I may put the jury rig up and lee board on my dinghy, take a few meridian altitudes, look at the world chart and head for safe harbour. Just for fun!
Francis
From: NavList@fer3.com [mailto:NavList@fer3.com] On Behalf Of Gary LaPook
Sent: 17 June 2015 19:37
To: francisupchurch---.com
Subject: [NavList] Re: Does "Lifeboat Navigation" exist today?
Well, in a life raft with ballast pockets, you aren't going anywhere except with the currrent. If you can pull up the ballast pockets then there is the possibility of moving with the wind instead of the current and, according to military servival manuals, up to about ten degrees from directly down wind if some sort of sail can be rigged. So, depending on the alignment of the current and the wind, some manovering and navigation is possible just like ballonists using the differnce in the wind directions at different altitudes to fly their balloons to suprisingly accurate landing spots.
And not everybody today has an inflatable life raft, some plan to use the dinghy possibly equiped with leeboards, floatation and a sailing rig if in extremis.
gl
