Reeds Astro tables - anybody used them?

[Sixpence]

BB, so basically not something one could learn by finding a cheap as chips sextant and reading lots about the subject ?
Had an offer from a very good mate to spend a few days teaching me how to do it when I go for the big trip South, but is it worth learning, or even trying to learn, how to navigate using something which is expensive to buy in the first place (even more so now you've said there's a world wide shortage ) and far from easy to use ?.
Current plan is to do the trip in one leg (saving marina charges) so it's going to take at least some night sailing, and I'm looking at a course that's going to take me well out of sight of land to avoid the East coast curse (sandbanks) which means if the gps battery packs up I'm going to be out there with only a last plot position on the chart to work from
That could see me in Oostende sooner than intended

 

[bilbobaggins]

My dear multi-cultural friend Dave,

'Dinna fach yersel', laddie.' You don't need a sextant to find your way to Norfolk. You don't even really need a GPS.... Just keep England just visible on your right hand, and that should suffice. And I'm only half joking....

There are only a few instruments that really matter in coastal voyaging. One's your compass, 'cos without that you'd be on your way to Jock-land - and you wouldn't want that! The next useful thingy is a 'distance run' log, 'cos otherwise you won't know when you've ( nearly ) arrived.

The third, and arguably the most important, is a depth thingy. Whether this is an electronic, a sonic, or a string, lead and wax throwback to an gentler age, matters little. The point is to stop you becoming an artificial reef or fish nursery on an unexpected sandbar.

One of the difficulties is that relative 'newbies' don't have opportunity to see really good navigation practice in operation, which can be turned into a yardstick or standard to aspire to. It's all picked up today from a 'speed read' of the RYA's quite good 20-page 'how to do it' booklets. That's not IMHO quite good enough.

Do the trip, Dave, in someone else's boat first. Learn stuff from that.

 

[KellysEye]

We looked at various celestial nav books and found that the easiest to understand is Celestial Navigation For Yachtsmen by Mary Blewitt.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

We looked at various celestial nav books and found that the easiest to understand is Celestial Navigation For Yachtsmen by Mary Blewitt.

Agree - its the book I used to learn after becoming miffed at an RYA Ocean course.

 

[Moodyjim]

The only thing they ever taught me as a Cadet was how to chip paint off and put new paint back over the top!!! (Oh - and how to tie a bowline behind my back).

 

[deadeyedick]

Can't stand Cunliffe, gets a lot of stuff wrong both in books and film.

 

[deadeyedick]

Mary Blewitt is the best and most simple book to learn from. A plastic Ebco and Air tables all that is needed. Stars rather than sun. Get to know Marc St. Hilaire, lovely bloke!

 

[GHA]

Might need some more up to date tables, thread is 10 years old.....