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View Poll Results: Blue Water- is a Sextant Necessary?
Absolutely essential 24 18.75%
Desirable, but not essential 52 40.63%
Good fun, but little practical use these days 40 31.25%
Don't waste your money and time on this 11 8.59%
Sextants make excellent dingy anchors. 3 2.34%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 128. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 22-11-2012, 10:37   #211
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Re: Poll-Blue water. Is a Sextant Necessary?

I had never heard of Bowditch until I had been at sea for about 5 years, then on one ship, they had both volumes of the American Practical Navigator.
In the UK, the standard reference book for navigation was the Admiralty Manual of Navigation, Vol 1 and 2(used to be 3 many years ago).
As for Lunars, I just did one a a couple of weeks ago while sitting on the dock in Esbjerg, as unfortunately our young cadet had seen a reference to Lunars, and asked me to show her how to work one through.
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Old 22-11-2012, 11:14   #212
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nigel1
I had never heard of Bowditch until I had been at sea for about 5 years, then on one ship, they had both volumes of the American Practical Navigator.
In the UK, the standard reference book for navigation was the Admiralty Manual of Navigation, Vol 1 and 2(used to be 3 many years ago).
As for Lunars, I just did one a a couple of weeks ago while sitting on the dock in Esbjerg, as unfortunately our young cadet had seen a reference to Lunars, and asked me to show her how to work one through.
What did you use for the tables. I can only find online sources these days !

Dave.
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Old 22-11-2012, 14:01   #213
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Re: Poll-Blue water. Is a Sextant Necessary?

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so just suicide by boat!
Well, Yeah Maybe. He was very religious. He said that the Lord had told him to do it. His big fear was that the coast guard would try to stop him. It would have been a huge betrayal but in retrospect I wish I had turned him in. His Epirb was never activated. He could have ended up in Asia too. His wife felt like he was still alive but I doubt it. Sorry for the thread drift and no a sextant would not have saved him but he would have had an easier time finding Hawaii if he had one. Much more accurate than the protractor w/weighted line that he did use. His name was Everett Evans, He was 67. I would talk about him some more if anyone is interested. Perhaps there will be a more appropriate thread.
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Old 23-11-2012, 01:16   #214
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Re: Poll-Blue water. Is a Sextant Necessary?

Dave,

I don't 15 books on the subject but I bet have 10. And a set of HO books and a gang of other stuff. When we go RTW, I'll have to sort that with a hard hand............

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Old 23-11-2012, 02:28   #215
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Re: Poll-Blue water. Is a Sextant Necessary?

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Originally Posted by goboatingnow View Post
What did you use for the tables. I can only find online sources these days !

Dave.
I have a small program on the laptop which gives me lunar distances for sun/moon only.
For any other body I would cheat and use Teacup Navigator.
I have seen published lunar distances, but for the life of me, I cannot recall where I saw them, age catching up.
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Old 23-11-2012, 05:26   #216
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Re: Poll-Blue water. Is a Sextant Necessary?

Imray nautical charts and nautical books from Imray, Admiralty Charts and pilots for sailing navigation from Imray, Laurie, Norie & Wilson Ltd www.imray.com

Has sight reduction tables, including the US version.

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Old 25-11-2012, 09:36   #217
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Re: Poll-Blue water. Is a Sextant Necessary?

I was following a rabbit trail about navigation and came across something interesting...so seeing this is the largest and most current sextant thread extant, I thought I'd post it here. A modern, modified form of the Bygrave Slide rule, to speed up sight reduction. Just in case you might be doing lots of them, or want to be able to do it fast....

https://sites.google.com/site/fredie...ave-slide-rule
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Old 25-11-2012, 10:28   #218
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Re: Poll-Blue water. Is a Sextant Necessary?

Quote:
Originally Posted by micah719 View Post
I was following a rabbit trail about navigation and came across something interesting...so seeing this is the largest and most current sextant thread extant, I thought I'd post it here. A modern, modified form of the Bygrave Slide rule, to speed up sight reduction. Just in case you might be doing lots of them, or want to be able to do it fast....

https://sites.google.com/site/fredie...ave-slide-rule
Yep, Lapook's variation, love that method.
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Old 25-11-2012, 10:42   #219
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Re: Poll-Blue water. Is a Sextant Necessary?

And I also came across the Traverse Board. Now that might be a handy thing for DR...because you can do it in the dark, cold and wet, without messing about with paper or crayons or the etch-a-sketch. Also, totally salty, and lightingproof to a certain extent; more so than the watchstander, anyway. Hmmmm, now what are my chances of patenting it and making it trendy again.....
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Old 25-11-2012, 15:28   #220
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Re: Poll-Blue water. Is a Sextant Necessary?

Gotta love micah719's link - - Most folks just have no idea how much math and pencil work is necessary - besides looking through the little eyepiece of a sextant - before you get a position where your boat "was." I have yet to see a sextant with a built in calculator that does all that pencil work for you.

If "they" ever built one it might be labeled a - GPS. Just yanking chains, but by the time all the sextant calculations are resolved, me and my GPS's will already be in harbor, anchored and drinking at the Tiki hut.

So like may have said, historical seamanship techniques - like sextants - can be fun and rewarding intellectual exercises. But "Is a Sextant Necessary?" - Nope. But on the other hand, having a "GPS" is not going to do you any good if you do not know how to operate and use it. There are more than a few horror stories of boaters colliding with islands, etc. because they did not realize GPS has no idea that the island exists - it only tells you where you are and where to point the boat to get to your next waypoint.
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