NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Lost at Sea with a sextant puzzle
From: Igor S.
Date: 2019 Jun 23, 16:04 -0700
From: Igor S.
Date: 2019 Jun 23, 16:04 -0700
Hi Doug,
When I was a child I've read a very interesting book ''Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea" written by Steven Callahan. I am pretty sure you can find it in pdf. He managed to build his sextant from 3 pencils (see the cover of the book). As far as I remember he was using Polaris to estimate his latitude.
Here is some youtube links
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ3rylyhoyU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DP9It_lsrU
Some time ago I've read one article (in russian) which sounds something like "longitude without chronometer and almanac". The idea was to use just a normal calendar containing the time of sunrise/sunset at your home port (reference) and compare it with the observed sunset/sunrise moments from your raft to roughly estimate your longitude.
Besides navigation you can use perhaps index mirror of the sextant as an emergency signalling mirror to attract attention.
kind regards,
Igor
