NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Modern celestial navigation: when and why?
From: Gary LaPook
Date: 2015 Feb 14, 09:56 -0800
From: Philip Lange <NoReply_PhilipLange@fer3.com>
To: garylapook@pacbell.net
Sent: Friday, February 13, 2015 7:06 AM
Subject: [NavList] Re: Modern celestial navigation: when and why?
From: Gary LaPook
Date: 2015 Feb 14, 09:56 -0800
Phillip, you said it beautifully.
I posted this in 2011:.
I remember one night in 1990 we were anchored in a long fjord on the east coast of Tahaa (an island about 20 nm east of Bora Bora) and it was so still that I could see the stars reflected in the ocean around the boat. I got out my Tamaya and took a round of sights using the still ocean surface as an artificial horizon
and got a fix that crossed on our anchorage.
gl
From: Philip Lange <NoReply_PhilipLange@fer3.com>
To: garylapook@pacbell.net
Sent: Friday, February 13, 2015 7:06 AM
Subject: [NavList] Re: Modern celestial navigation: when and why?
My introduction to blue water cruising came in the late 60's early 70's. For a small yacht, celestial was it. I have never experienced the thrill of landfall with modern instruments that came with CN. Weeks at sea, then the tiny island appears on the horizon just where it is supposed to be. No black box can capture that experience. Why CN? Addiction I suppose; to the mind it takes to be confident with uncertainty, the rush that comes with landfall and confirmation, the honing of a skill, the connection with our sun, our stars and our universe. Lying at anchor in a pool of reflected starlight, gazing at the familiar sea of stars above, it is easy to see our world whirling among them. And, if we allow ourselves the experience, the inevitable realization that we too are the stuff of stars. Philip --
