Scott Bulger" scottebulger@comcast.net said: I had come to the opinion
that I had to learn Celestial Navigation as the only reasonable backup.
While I know its hard to master, I was confident I could learn to do it,
again, with the goal that it gets me close to an..............

I'm not sure why there is this feeling that Celestial Navigation is "hard
to learn".  I am not particularly interested in Celestial only the result.
I bought a Davis Mark 25 in 1981 and had a friend (CG Aux instructor) show
me how to take a sight and reduce it using HO 211. The sight (Sun) is
pretty easy to take.  I practiced on the beach.  Reducing it was harder
(very easy to make a simple mistake (adding or subtracting) or more likely
taking the wrong data from a table).  In any event I later bought a TI-58c
calculator and used that for the reduction.

I managed to singlehand from SF to Kauai in 82 and end up on the right
island.  I took morning and afternoon sun sights.  For a few days I also
was able to get moon sights and get an instant position sun/moon. My
chronometer was a $15.00 Casio which I kept on time with WWV time tick. I
have absolutely no aptitude for this -- if I can do it anyone can.

If the goal is a redundant system after failure of GPS -- a sextant, HO
211, and a current nautical almanac will get you pretty close using only
the sun.  Once you start getting into star sights, circles of position
(when sun is directly overhead) etc., then the difficulty rises.  Full
overcast, or a difficult horizon were the biggest difficulties I faced.  I
don't know if it is cheating, but a nautical calculator is pretty nice and
will reduce the risk of entering incorrect data.

To comment on sextant quality -- on the return (Kauai to SF) I had two
crew.  One had a very expensive German Sextant.  The three of us
alternated using the Davis and the German one.  After two days (21 day
trip) all of us would only used the Davis sextant.  On a 28 foot boat, the
heavier sextant just couldn't be held in position as well as the much
lighter Davis.  The potential greater accuracy of the German sextant
couldn't be realized in our situation and we were all afraid we were going
to drop it :>).  Incidentally I also carried a redundant (really cheap)
Davis Sextant at the time.

Regards  Robby & Dolores [robbyr67@comcast.net]

Sir Francis Chichester, an accomplished navigator at a time when RDF was
high tech (I've got a B&G Homer) regularly had to use only noon Sun sights
because of the motion of his boat. There were times when he was able to do a
celestial sight and he took great pleasure in producing a "three-cornered
hat." He was centered on his 24 hour runs and had one voyage from Africa to
try to set a record vis a vis the clipper ships. So it was more than just
position at stake.

Ron Rogers
Willard 40 AIRBORNE
Lying Annapolis