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Morganministry · 20-12-2011, 21:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

I am investing in my boat now so I can live for a long time -- hopefully in perpetuity.

So this is the secret to a long life. That must be some boat...

Scott

sailorboy1 · 21-12-2011, 04:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by tropicalescape

What to do when the power goes off?...I would at least like to have a sextent and the knowledge to use it ...DVC

Every once in a while you turn on your battery powered back-up GPS and find your position. You know that little GPS that cost less than a sextant and tells you where you really are.

**atoll** · 21-12-2011, 05:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

Every once in a while you turn on your battery powered back-up GPS and find your position. You know that little GPS that cost less than a sextant and tells you where you really are.

should check out the lightning thread before totally relying on anthing electrical,even if it is wrapped in tin foil.under your bunk.....

callmecrazy · 21-12-2011, 05:37

a rubber type of dry sack should keep the electro bugs out. If not, then use your DR skills, compass, and paper charts

What happens when the sextant gets dropped and something bends or breaks?

osirissail · 21-12-2011, 07:02

Or what happens when the lights fail and you cannot read your "reduction tables" at night - or they get soaked with sea water? Oh! you do not use paper "reduction tables" but the little T.I. calculator instead . . . There are failure modes for everything and no one thing is immune.
- - One of the basic premises of this thread is if you don't have it you don't have to fix it or replace it. So the minimal is paper charts, dividers, parallel rules, hand sighting compass and a watch/clock (oh, oh - another electrical/battery device to fail

).

**atoll** · 21-12-2011, 07:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by osirissail

Or what happens when the lights fail and you cannot read your "reduction tables" at night - or they get soaked with sea water? Oh! you do not use paper "reduction tables" but the little T.I. calculator instead . . . There are failure modes for everything and no one thing is immune.
- - One of the basic premises of this thread is if you don't have it you don't have to fix it or replace it. So the minimal is paper charts, dividers, parallel rules, hand sighting compass and a watch/clock (oh, oh - another electrical/battery device to fail

).

do a noon sight,at least you can get a lattitude with out a time piece

osirissail · 21-12-2011, 07:16

When's Noon? Your electric clock/watch failed due to all those lightning strikes or other power failures. Can you tell when it is Noon, when you have no idea what time sunrise/sunset or whatever was?
- - You'd be lucky to guess within +/- 5 degrees of latitude which coincidentally was how Christopher Columbus navigated across the Atlantic. He made land/island fall varying from Trinidad to the Bahamas each trip over. Unfortunately, the natives were not smart enough to set up Customs/Immigration on their islands and should have demanded to see his "visa" before allowing him to stay or be send him back to his country of origin.
- - The point is that discussions of sextants, power failures, lightning strikes are really not very relevant to this particular thread as most minimalist budget cruisers I have met and that is quite a few, simple use D.R. navigation. Maybe a handheld GPS if they are upscale minimalists.

**atoll** · 21-12-2011, 07:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by osirissail

When's Noon? Your electric clock/watch failed due to all those lightning strikes or other power failures.

you dont need to know the time,just the altitude of the suns at its highest point.
but you will need to take a series of sights to acertain local noon altitude

**Hud3** · 21-12-2011, 08:04

I have a sneaking suspicion that 98.5% of the $500/month crowd will be cruising coastal waters only, not crossing oceans. For them, a sextant is irrelevant, and they could easily get by without a chartplotter or GPS. In fact, in the West Indies, three used (read "cheap") cruising guide volumes would get them from the Virgin Islands to Grenada without the need for paper charts, since the sketch charts and sailing directions in those guides are so good.

MacG · 21-12-2011, 08:15

I have a russian made submarine chronometer - a present of a friendly Navy Commander - that clock runs a week (mechanically) on the dot before rewinding.

So no electrics involved. Nightsailing outside the trafficlanes - sorry no navlights on. Maybe a petrol lamp in the mast, mode Joshua Slocum. Log, compass, charts covers coastal cruising mostly. Binoculars with an in-build compass are a great help.
Last trip from Falmouth - La Coruna I did w/o GPS. Arrived as planned at Estaca de Barres and followed coast from there. Nothing to get exited about.