"Larry" wrote in message
...
"Ted" wrote in news:adL%f.3093$BS2.2461
@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net:

The rantings of paper map and compass geezers always crack me up.



I carry my sextant and books aboard, but merely for amusement to see if I
can get even close to the four GPS receivers' positions with all the
thrashing around out there. I even have an artificial horizon for
practice
at home. Everyone should know how to use the old nav instruments, but,
frankly, even at the dock, I'm not even close, most of the time...(c;

keeping and using map compass and sextant is not the problem. Constantly
lecturing the world about how your favorite old technique must always be
better than any newer technique is the problem.

I still have a slide rule but don't seem to ever feel the need to lecture
others that electronic calculators are inferior to slide rules.

Keep your sextant. Use it often. Teach others how to use it. Until the
stars burn out, It is still a valid technique.



We do have a Yeoman plotter. It was the portable XL my captain left in
his
truck and all the hot glue it was held together with melted over in
Hotlanta. He was going to junk it, but I took it apart and salvaged the
scanning board, puck and computer daughterboard out of it. I used double-
sided industrial-strength foam tape to mount it to the bottom of the
mahogany chart table top. It fits great. The puck has no trouble getting
a good, accurate scan through the wood, the entire chart book folded up so
only the chart we want is on top. The chart table fiddles are used to
hold
the book, or chart, in place. Add a velum cover to draw on and that's our
paper chart plot of where we've been and, should the unthinkable happen
and
four GPS receivers, 3 chart plotters and a Dell Latitude notebook all
crash
at once...we'll have an accurate chart to start plotting my awful sextant
reading by.

It sounds like you have a good backup plan for when all your GPSs fail.
Good for you. But while your GPS systems are working you still will not need
buoys. You should not be navigating to buoys with your GPS and buoys become
not much more than a collision hazard on the water while you have a
functioning GPS aboard. I wonder how many people have struck a buoy by
accident vs the number of people who have had a boating accident due to
failure of GPS. If anyone has data like that I would love to see it.


Of course, we could just sail West until we bump into the United States of
America. That doesn't take a PhD in navigation to find...(c;


When all else fails you, its common sense like that (not expensive
electronics or fancy paper charts) which gets you out of "hot water".