NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Women Navigators
From: Bill B
Date: 2006 Jun 7, 01:27 -0400
From: Bill B
Date: 2006 Jun 7, 01:27 -0400
Renee LOL. Well put. Bill > Here are some random thoughts from a woman pursuing celestial navigation: > > Navigation is a "guy thing" the way that math, science, and engineering are > "guy things". Which is to say: "Not". > > I have read several times that Polynesian and Micronesian navigators > depended on the swinging of their testicles to help them "read" the waves. > But, after much study, I have concluded that they are NOT REQUIRED and, in > fact, CANNOT USEFULLY BE EMPLOYED while actually doing celnav with charts, > sextants, and almanacs. > > In my house, *I* wear the sextant. > > I am not a highly-acclaimed or even highly-experienced navigator myself, but > here I am working on the Silicon Sea BOOK for Celestaire. > > I realized today, while I was watching my kids' swimming lessons, that I was > the ONLY parent perusing a vintage copy of Bowditch. This would make ANYONE > an oddity. But really, there is NO WAY that Williams-Sonoma catalog is going > to last you the whole hour. > > Hardly anybody is doing celestial navigation here on earth, but NASA is > teaching it to their planetary rovers. And writing navigational almanacs > for other worlds. > > All it takes is some practice and a little bit of math. > Why should the boys have ALL the fun? > > Oh, and those celnav geeks will probably be all OVER you if you go to Mystic > for father's day. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? > > Renee Mattie