I want to learn how to navigate without GPS

I've had my Astra IIIB for over 25 years. Works fine.

There are loads of instruction and work books around for astronavigation, but I would restrict yourself to those that use the Air Navigation Sight Reduction Tables.

However, you will find it hard to practice on a lake as you don't have a true horizon.

But before you get stuck in to all this, you really have to assess the relative risks with each navigation method before you can work out what is a back up to what. Is the chance of the GPS system failing (for what ever reason) really greater than you remembering how to do astronavigation, to having a current, accurate time variation table with you, to having kept your sextant undamaged and mildew free with known and stable errors, to having a working time signal radio on board, to having an up to date almananc with you, to having kept your sight reduction tables and plotting charts dry and usable, and then to be able to guarentee this GPS failure doesn't happen on a cloudy day ?

It's worth remembering that Mike Ritchey, who was president of our Royal Institute of Navigation, had to abandon his boat because he got all his navigation books and reduction tables sodden wet. If he had a handheld GPS with him as back up, the original yacht 'Jester' would probably still be sailing.

The back up to GPS is more GPS.

 

While Celestial may not be practical on Lake Champlain, relying solely on GPS is not either.
Using a GPS AND keeping track of your position on a paper chart would seem the safest bet. Then if your GPS goes out or the system goes down (therefore making your backup worthless) you can run a DR course and speed utilizing the chart, compass, rules, & dividers like in the "old" days. Your sounder or even a leadline would be employed also.

The above could bring you close enough inshore, even under most reduced visibility situations, to then rely on basic coastal nav techniques.

Offshore GPS with a backup plus plotting on a paper chart would be the way to go. At least a celestial noon sight & later running fix would back up the GPS. Paper charts and other publications have been used for hundreds of years by mariners who managed to keep them dry most of the time. I've done it in an open skiff in the temperate rainforested waters of SE Alaska. As to the time, three good watches (for backup sake) with known rates of error, will give you what you need, time component wise, to do celestial. A SW radio time signal would only be needed on the longest passages. Your DR Longitude is plugged into your sight calculations so a "time variation table" is not needed, nor have I personally ever heard of such a table.

I would also, as Crag Cay has, recommend using the air sight reduction tables. I've never used the marine tables but hear they require several extra steps and are only slightly more accurate. In a small boat this extra accuracy will not be much of an issue. One mile accuracy is about the best you will ever get anyhow.

If you want to practice Celestial in Vermont you can utilize a "artificial horizon". Not ideal but better than running to the Atlantic everytime you wish to practice.

It is commendable to wish to learn celestial. If you ever do voyage far offshore it will prove a vital part of your nautical skills. First & foremost though, if you are not already proficient with basic coastal navigation, I would learn to be. In many ways coastal is more involved then celestial.

Tim

 

Just to clarify, I was limiting my comments to oceanic position fixing, ie that part of the navigational art that used be done by celestrial sights.

Coastal navigation, pilotage, plus the arguments about paper versus paperless chart tables, etc, is a much broader discussion and one in which I am far more conservative. But for offshore and ocean passage position fixing, I still believe the back up for GPS is another GPS.

For many years I carried both my sextant and my walker log as back up to any electronic systems. But now both are mounted on mahogany plinths on the mantlepiece. I don't think they will ever go to sea again.

 

in my opinion the OLD way is just a way of satisfying ones needs to be sort of self sufficient, its rather like sitting in front of a fire, hearth, or cutting wood, , it satisfies something within, it feels good,
I don't dispute the ease of gps, and the peace of mind it gives when either there is not time, no sun, or doubt,
i would never sell mine, kinda like old hand tools you hang on to em

 

The BIG problem with any GPS etc type of navigation equipment on a small boat is the problem with electrics - namely that electrickery and salt are lousy bedfellows! so you have all the super dooper magic, all singing, all dancing, bit of kit - bit of salt air and CRASH!

OK so yer paper gets soggy - keep it in a waterproof container until you need it, or if you are only doing short passages laminate the relevant pages! you then have a decent backup! OK main GPS then battery GPS then what ? white stick? somewhere in between is a bit of Celestial, cos you know that it always goes wrong miles from anywhere and no village shop in sight!

 

Hand held water proof GPS running on batteries perhaps. Lets not go daft here, they are pretty cheap, even those for walkers will get you a position in any weather. Its not unusuall to have two three or four spares,- boxed --new --ready to go,--for the reall pesamistic minimalists amongst us.

 

If you just want to learn how to use one . . .

http://www.tecepe.com.br/nav/CDSextantProject.htm

 

Stolen sextant Frosty?

Not a good idea was it, all you have done is create a better market for stolen goods. "May the fleas of a thousand camels sleep with you tonight".

 

Better one thousand that 2 thousand like I had last night.

 

The new nautical almanacs have a pretty good method that is easy to use. They rely on a calculator and don't require sight reduction tables.

 

Now that gonzo is good to know (as long as your battery don't die - yeah I know you got solar! Anybody got a solar powered GPS - the mind boggles!)

 

ye sCraig, agree air sight and plotting charts,

 

Captain Cook didn't have a GPS when he sailed up the East Coast of Australia. But then he slammed into the Great Barrier Reef and put a big hole in his ship.

If he'd taken a GPS this wouldn't have happened.

Poida

 

Imagine how his (Cook's) survey work would have proceeded with GPS. His work's accuracy & extent are truly amazing.

Tim

 

I can learn to navigate without a gps anny day I want. My father where sailing as a 1mate in the mercant navy.

I was colour blind so I seteled for working in smal dark engineroms changing oil and calibrating alarms, but then I have no interest in navigation. The times I go out in a boat and drive myself I seldom go out to open waters and often row the boat for exercise.

I'm shure if people want to learn there is allway a old captain around that can teatch you.