NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Brad Morris
Date: 2019 Jun 24, 20:00 -0400
There is some irony in the fact that the sextant is rendered useless in this scenario by modern technology ie the liferaft. In the seventies it would not have been the case. We still had to do our survival training by rowing a great lump of a lifeboat about as a team very similar to the kind found on the Titanic... It could be fitted with sails. Though apparently we may be the last year to have too do this.
Now a sextant and almanac would be very useful in this. Waiting next to your ships last known location is only really viable since GMDSS came around or if you were in a busy shipping corridor.
I can also say, whoever came down from the bridge with the sextant and not either the almanac or the sight reduction tables would not be getting a space in my liferaft. Better to share their water ration among the worthy. Further to this, if you HAVE to go in the liferaft, there is only ONE thing you better have and thats the EPIRB! I will leave the food and water before I leave the EPIRB!!!!! That right there is your BEST chance of survival!!!!!!