NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Thousand dollar question
From: Dan Allen
Date: 1999 Aug 02, 5:33 PM
From: Dan Allen
Date: 1999 Aug 02, 5:33 PM
I would buy for my $1,000:
Sextant:
Astra IIIb Sextant $460
or
Used Tamaya Jupiter $425 -- Preferred
Calculators:
HP-48G $75 -- To program sight reduction formulas
TI-36X Solar $18 -- Backup for when batteries die
Time:
Seiko SLL033 watch $162 -- Highly accurate 192 KHz quartz watch
Sony SW radio $100? -- For WWV
Nav Books:
Bowditch $25
Nautical Almanac $17
GPS:
Garmin GPS48 $270 -- good nautical lights
or
Garmin GPS III $300 -- nice gray-scale display
I'm over by about $100. I'd cut back by trying to find a cheaper radio, look
for a better deal on a used metal sextant, etc. I would actually spend about
double this and get at least two of everything: 2 metal sextants, 2 GPS
receivers, 2 calculators, 2 SW radios, etc, which still wouldn't be too bad
compared to Radar, depth sounders, etc. Those are important too for
navigation, but you really can't get all of these things for just $1000 and
have them all be adequate.
A fun question to entertain! Let's think of more such questions!
Dan Allen
danallen@microsoft.com
-----Original Message-----
From Lu Abel [mailto:lu.abel@ATT.NET]
Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 1999 10:47 PM
To: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM
Subject: Thousand dollar question
My previous post on sextants (which also included some opinions on money
well spent and not well spent) made me think of a question which will stir
some pretty strong thoughts and opinions:
You are planning a leisurely trans-Pacific cruise (let's say San Francisco
to New Zealand and back), which will take 2+ years. Your boat is already
equipped with a knotmeter. You are on a tight budget and have figured you
can spend no more than $1000 on additional navigation gear. You can equip
you boat any way you wish -- GPS, Loran, or any variety of celestial gear.
(you neither own nor can afford a laptop computer)
How would you spend your $1000??
(for prices, let's use the current West Marine catalog)
Cheers, and let's go at it!!
Lu
PS - Opinions on a budget of only $500 would also be interesting!
