NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Brad Morris
Date: 2014 Jan 15, 23:19 -0500
I've watched the second of three episodes.
This one is much better on the navigational aspects. The navigator is shown shooting the sun a few times with a sextant, albeit not a Heath Hezzanith (the type Worsley used). It its briefly explained that taking the angle between the horizon and the sun will provide their position, but not how.
Certainly no explanation of time sight navigation ( how Worsley navigated) vs modern methods.
Once, the navigator is shown with the horizon line of sight pointed up, as if to the sun. No reason to do that. Made for silly theater.
At one point, their fix is claimed to be within 5 nautical miles of true position (per the chase boat) after 300 nautical miles. This is a little worse than expected results shown here on NavList, although the program claims that they are good.
The chronometer shown in the program is a boxed type. There is a lot of dispute as to Worsley using such a boxed chronometer on the Caird. (Aboard Endurance, there is no question that he did so. The dispute is if he brought the boxed chronometer aboard the Caird). He was known to carry his deck watch on a lanyard around his neck, next to his body. Gary has shown this practice to yield thermal stability. The program shows a similar watch hanging from the ceiling of the Caird replica (!???!?!!!). No no no no no.
The overview of the navigational planning is shown and well explained. It agrees with the overall plan Worsley used.
I'm pretty pleased with it.
The boat portion is over. Next week is the mountain crossing of S Georgia Island.
Brad
I've watched the first part.
Worsley is mentioned once(?). The only sextant shown is in his hands. The navigator of this current expedition is shown holding a chart. There is some vague reference to dead reckoning without explaining to the viewer how it works. There is some good idea of using the compass to navigate NNE.
For those relatively new to NavList, you may not know that George Huxtable and I, been granted access to Worsley's navigational log, decoded it. The transcribed log may be found somewhere in here. Worsley navigated by dead reckoning and by the use of the Time Sight.
The footage of Elephant Island was stunning. No image of Cape Belsham was shown nor its importance mentioned. Point Wild (Shackleton's base camp on EI) is shown.
I loved the footage of the James Caird replica at sea. Until you see that tiny vessel on 6 meter waves, the danger faced cannot be truly understood.
Here's hoping the navigational aspects get better.
Brad
R
On Jan 8, 2014 1:37 PM, "Noell Wilson" <noell_wilson{at}southwire.com> wrote:I admire the energy and dedication of the folks planning to make this boat trip and climb across the spine of South Georgia. I hope they give credit for the first part of the survival story - camping on the ice in the Weddell Sea as the ice mass rotated and brought the party to open water near Elephant Island.
I highly recommend Shackelton's book "South" if you have not already read it.
Regards, Noell----------------------------------------------------------------
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