NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
MacDonalds to the Rescue
From: William Trayfors
Date: 1999 Aug 03, 8:32 AM
From: William Trayfors
Date: 1999 Aug 03, 8:32 AM
The recent threads re: navigation on a budget seem to me to be mostly mental masturbation. They don't take much account of the real world of 1999, including our current economic boom. Nobody, but nobody, should set out to sea without proper navigation instruments. And, nobody is so poor as to be unable to acquire them new or used. Consider the following. MacDonalds around here (Washington DC) pays $8/hour. Let's call it $6/hour after taxes. They can't get enough employees...always have Help Wanted signs out. Here's how even the hardest pressed would-be navigator could acquire a first-class setup (new prices): ITEM Cost Hours Weeks Sextant (Astra IIIB) 460 76.7 1.9 GPS 150 25.0 0.6 Timepiece 20 3.3 0.1 Nautical Almanac 17 2.8 0.1 Celesticomp Calculator 279 46.5 1.2 HO 229 12 2.0 0.1 Total $938 156.3 3.9 So, a month's work at MacDonald's would pay for the lot. Put your mate to work also, and you could double up on the sextant, GPS, and timepiece (or buy just one of each in only 2 weeks)! How about some real-world navigation problems?? Bill
