felton wrote:


While I agree with your premise, I am really trying to determine if my
time would be better spent learning something more likely to have some
use to me.

Well, celestial is a rarely used skill even by passagemakers any more. If
you're going coastal cruising, even less so.


I tend to believe that celestial is so far down the list
of skills that *might* be useful, that perhaps my time would be better
invested in an amateur radio license, for example. There must be
other ways to improve myself in some way that may be useful, rather
than just interesting.

Agreed.


If it keeps you from being lost at sea after your GPS is either fried,
dropped, or soaked, then clestial skills (even if it is only shooting sun
lines) will bring your butt into port alive.

True enough, but it seems likely that I could counter those risks more
easily than learning celestial navigation, but I do concede that it
would be useful in those circumstances.

Here's the rub- how much do you want to be able to save your own bacon when
(not if) your electronic doodads go down the drain? You can always beg a
position from a passing boat, or if you've kept a good DR you can probably find
your way close enough to the harbor mouth to spot the high rise hotels.

I've heard stories of people relying on GPS in really hair raising
circumstances, such as running inlets blind in storms. They lived to tell the
tale, but it's still just another form of Russian Roulette.

BTW from anecdotal evidence, the failure rate of electronic nav aids on
passages is about 10%. Obviously this doesn't include incidents where loss of
ships navigation lead to fatality





Personally, I count all knowledge as a net gain. YMMV.

I do too, but I haven't signed up for piano lessons, either

Me neither, but then I do take my guitar when cruising... it gets a lot more
use than my sextant...

Fresh Breezes- Doug King