BoatBanter.com - View Single Post

John H.[_5_]

On Fri, 03 Jan 2020 17:30:52 -0500, wrote:

On Fri, 03 Jan 2020 16:12:25 -0500, John H.
wrote:

On Fri, 03 Jan 2020 15:13:19 -0500, wrote:

On Fri, 03 Jan 2020 13:47:10 -0500, John H.
wrote:

On Fri, 03 Jan 2020 13:43:01 -0500, wrote:

On Fri, 03 Jan 2020 11:12:10 -0500,
wrote:

On Thu, 2 Jan 2020 17:48:30 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

Don't think we were talking "seamanship". That's a wide ranging subject.

Boating with "local knowledge" really isn't celestial navigation either.

I think very few of us .... with the exception of Wayne ... really needs
to know how to navigate by the stars.

===

I studied celestial navigation back in the early 80s when it was still
required for ocean navigation. I own an inexpensive sextant and have
taken a few sights with it but don't carry it on the boat since we
have multiple, redundant GPS units. Back in the day we used to sail
offshore from the Cape Cod Canal up to Maine using paper charts,
compass and dead reckoning. Making landfall in Maine on a foggy,
windy morning had an element of uncertainty and excitement but always
ended up within a mile or so of where we expected. I could still
navigate by compass, charts and dead reckoning if the entire GPS
system went out but it would take a while to get used to the
uncertainty factor. There are tricks of the trade for dealing with
positional uncertainty but they are rapidly becoming a lost art.

There seem to be a lot of "lost arts" in this age of technology. We
always assume the technology will just be there.

As long as we have our cell phones, we can always give you a call! :)

===

I'm sorry, the number you are calling is not in service at this
time... beep

Does anyone remember picking up the phone and getting a human operator
that said: "Number please?"

Only a few of us are as old as you are. My earliest is when we had separate rings. You could pick up
on your neighbor's ring and monitor. (Not that anyone ever did that!)

I was a city boy in those days, everyone had a dial phone if they had
a phone at all but it was all ala carte. You paid for "call units" and
long distance was ridiculous. I suppose you all heard about calling
home, person to person and asking for yourself. It was just to say you
were OK, for free.

When I got drafted, that's how I kept in touch!