Lost tech of Ancients

[Yobarnacle]

from a small vesel...30 to 50 ft loa

[michael pierzga]

Radar is the weapon. I cant imagine navigating without it. The radar GPS interface allows bold navigation in poor conditions.... like identifying the MoA welcome buoy as it dips into the troughs of three meter waves then disappears into the clutter. The GPS lolli pop identifies the buoy allowing you to fiddle knobs until you mark it..


When I was younger...finding Bermuda with a sextant meant getting close, then waiting for the ships or aircraft trails to point you in the right direction

[Yobarnacle]

I'm as addicted to electronics as anyone. I love my Arpa radars, and 22 inch electronic chart plotter with AIS and DGPS. I love my satelite phone, and Email at sea and the color weather charts from the private weather service. All the toys I can get, as long as the company pays for them.
But I don't want to forget my original training. A power failure means all the electronics go dark and mute.

[Yobarnacle]

goodnight, its 5:03 am I'm off to lala land for about 5 hours. Just can't sleep longer than that. Too many years of watch and watch, 6 and 6

[michael pierzga]

Longitude at noon . At local apparent noon, longitude is not able to be determined by recording Meridian passage .

You can observe max altitude ,but not the presice time of meridian passage because the arc of the sun is so flat. The sun will be Several minutes on top of its hump before falling. Meridian passage will be sometime in this flat arc.

The technique, longitude at noon , uses equal altitudes and equal times to determine the precise time of meridian passage. Its better explained with books and illistrations.

The technique is very simple and represents a typical small craft navigators day with the sun.

[Yobarnacle]

Excellent.
In the "lessons" I posted, I over simplified so as not to cause sensory overload. The 'lessons' were directed at readers who don't know celestial and too intimidated by "spherical trigonometry" to attempt to learn. I wanted to be encouraging. When I'm teaching an interested hand on board, I suggest he pick a whole degree of longitude from his LAN worksheet altitudes & times. The sun moves a degree west every 4 minutes. A whole degree longitude is accurate within that degree. Like uncorrected Polaris. IMHO.
But "my" lessons are over. Now I'm the student. Please continue small craft navigation.