"Sailors of old" used the best technology available to them -- paper
charts, sextent, volumes of sun/star data, etc. It seems that the most seaman-like thing to do is to equip yourself with the best technology available that you can afford.
Magellan would have killed for a gps receiver.
To NOT take advantage of such a reliable and cost effective aid to
navigation because of some ludite notion of sailing "purity" or anti-electronics prejudice is lubberly. There is no more
danger of a gps receiver malfunctioning than there was/is of dropping and damaging a sextent. In fact, for the
price of one good sextent, you could have three or four handheld
gps receivers and a case of AAA
batteries on board as back-up.
Paper charts? Of course. But to not spend $189.95 on the best technology available? Why? It's like an eighteenth century mariner saying, "I don't need that fancy clock. Sailors have been sailing the oceans without knowing their latitude for thousands of years. I trust the old ways."
DGC