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--- Jim Thompson wrote:
>
> Digital watches are hard to read in winter air: the
> LCD screen fades in the cold, ...

Both Timex and Casio sell digital and analog quartz
watches that light up with a bluish glow when you
press a button.

> 1. For timing sights on deck: a stopwatch with
> split-seconds?  Digital wrist-watch?

Two suggestions:

1. Use a stop watch that will take "splits" or "lap
time". You record the exact time at which you start it
(the "start time").  Then when you press the
appropriate button it records the lap time and keeps
running. You can then read it and record it at your
leisure, along with the sextant altitude.  When you
are ready for the next sight, repeat the process.

2. Use a tape recorder.  Before you go out on deck,
start the recorder and record the start time (e.g.,
"Ready, mark, time 17 hours zero minutes and zero
seconds.")  Leave it running as you take your sights.
For each sight, speak into the recorder, saying
something like, "Ready, mark! Altitude 33 degrees 42.5
minutes". No need to look at the time.  Afterward in a
well-lit room or cabin, play back the tape and time
the intervals between the starting mark and each
subsequent mark. Add those intervals to the start time
and you have the times of your observations.

> 2. For a chronometer to keep safe below decks as a
> reference for the comparing watch:  The GPS?

I prefer a shortwave radio tuned to WWV (2.5, 5, 10,
or 15 MHz).  A GPS will suffice, but some older models
do not take into account leap seconds.  Once you check
a GPS against an accurate time signal, it should be
fine.

Ashore you can get a good time hack at

        http://www.time.gov

Good luck!

Chuck Taylor
 47 deg 55.2 min N
122 deg 11.2 min W


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