NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Mercator vs. Great Circle Charts
From: Richard B. Emerson
Date: 2001 Aug 29, 10:36 AM
From: Richard B. Emerson
Date: 2001 Aug 29, 10:36 AM
Still in use??? I don't think so or you weren't seeing SATNAV. The Transit satellites have been shut down. I've lost track of the URL but I think NavCen had some pieces about pulling the plug on the satellites. Anyway, the point is the satellites are silent. Maybe you were seeing Omega or some other system? After the QE2 taking the bottom on a rock off Nantucket and a couple of similar groundings from blindly following the data on a nav console, any captain who doesn't wear suspenders, a belt, and a skyhook to keep his or her navigational pants up is asking for problems. Your observation suggests at least one captain so equipped. [s] Rick S/V One With The Wind, Baba 35 Young, Derrick writes: > Rick, > > I understand your comment about SATNAV - but I was on a cruise ship recently > and they still had the equipment and it was still in use. Like many > mariners - we seem to keep the old stuff "just in case." I still found > folks onboard that thought it was funny that the quartermaster was taking > dawn/noon and dusk shots with a sextant and then working out the position > (by hand!) to confirm what the position that the GPS and LORAN-C were > reporting. > > It felt good (to me) to see their accuracy was a bit better than mine (lots > more practice!). > > derrick