At one time or another, virtually all celestial navigators have looked at the data for the navigational planets and puzzled at the cryptic numbers alongside the names. Some numbers are positive, and some are negative, and they change over the course of the year. When he asks about these labels, the navigator is told that the numbers represent "magnitude," or the apparent brightness of the planets. And it helps not at all to be further informed that the larger the negative number, the brighter the object. What, one might wonder, is the basis of this crazy system? The seemingly contradictory nature of this method for describing the luminosity of stellar objects results from trying to graft a 2,000-year-old, naked eye observation system devised by ancient Greek astronomers on to scientific…
Every other year the Marion Bermuda Race hosts a gathering of some of this country's most capable navigators, those who make use of all manner of techniques to derive positions and strategy. The winner of the last Marion Bermuda Race, which will be held next in June, recently described navigational practices aboard his 37.5-foot sloop Majek. "I navigated constantly, getting as many sun sights as possible and catching both twilights," explained Max Fletcher of Orr's Island, Maine. "This is helpful because we always knew where we were; we were able to make very detailed tactical decisions." Fletcher suspects that his winning decision was choosing to veer from the rhumb line to Bermuda and steer out of the Gulf Stream for a cold eddy. The eddy's favorable countercurrent positioned the vessel…
Several years ago I participated in a search and rescue operation in Canada's far north. During the course of this effort, I witnessed some of the more noble of human traits: bravery, camaraderie, selfless community spirit, and the incredible human will to survive in the face of overwhelming odds. I also ended up putting to very good use the navigational skills that I learned the previous summer while on a training cruise with Ocean Navigator's schooner, Ocean Star. The story began on October 25 when 10 men set out in a 35-foot wooden long-liner, Qasaoq, to hunt walrus near Loks Land, which juts into the North Atlantic near mouth of Frobisher Bay. Frobisher Bay lies on the southern end of Baffin Island in Canada's eastern Arctic. It runs northwest to…
The Marion Bermuda Cruising Yacht Race, which sails every other June from Marion, Mass., will begin June 20, 2003. The race will not feature any changes to the previous race rules. The race will retain two navigation classes, electronic and celestial, only. Ocean Navigator will once again sponsor the Navigator's Trophy, to be presented by veteran Marion Bermuda racer Andrew Howe of Ocean Navigator's School of Seamanship. The race will continue to use the Americap system of handicapping and is open to cruising yachts (no all-out racers and no professionals!) between 32 and 62 feet LOD. For information, contact Faith Paulsen, race administrator, at the MBCYR Association: 508-748-2001 or via email: race@marionbermuda.com.
Modern sailors don't do much latitude sailing. The ability to fix one's position anywhere on the ocean using either modern sight-reduction methods or GPS allows today's voyagers to take any route they wish. However, on a recent voyage from the Azores to Portugal we found ourselves following in the footsteps of centuries of mariners by running down our latitude along the 37 parallel. Lady Luck, our Shannon 43 ketch, left Miami on May 20, bound for the Mediterranean. After stops in Bermuda and the Azores for provisioning and for crewmembers to fly home, there were only two of us left to sail on to Gibraltar and points east. We departed from Ponta Delgada on the island of São Miguel on June 28. The winds in the lee of the island…
Domestic loran C, with years of reliable service behind it and a large installed base of users, might be headed for the scrap heap; a possible victim of both GPS and tight budgets. Sources within the radionavigation community say that the Coast Guard, in an effort to save money, could turn off loran as soon as 1998. This shutoff date differs substantially from the 2015 date stated in the 1992 Federal Radionavigation Plan (FRP). This latter date was chosen to provide a reasonable overlap in coverage between GPS and loran. With tight budgets and with the widespread user acceptance of GPS as receiver prices drop, the Coast Guard and the Department of Transportationofficially responsible for civilian radionavigation systems, as operated by the Coast Guard and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)are now…
When navigating with the 57 navigational stars, the first thing one notices on a starry night is that they appear to move across the sky. But this is only apparent motion; it is Earth that is moving, not the stars. For all practical purposes, the stars are fixed. Were Earth frozen in space, the stars would not appear to move on any time scale perceptible to the naked eye. Now, glance at the sidereal hour angle (SHA) and declination of a star on the daily pages of the Nautical Almanac. One will see that its position changes over the course of a month or so. For example, the SHA and declination of Procyon are 245° 16.9' and N 5° 14.9' in January 1991, but 245° 17.0' and N5° 14.8' in…
Why do many experienced pleasure boaters seem to take pride in rejecting GPS, the accurate and reliable Global Position System? Boat navigation has much in common with aviation, so I question a couple of Chris Waln’s observations in the Jan.⁄Feb. 2001 Correspondence section (“Using a GPS to assist with piloting tasks,” Issue No. 111). What exactly is a “sun compass”? Does he mean a standby compass? How does one set a GPS for local magnetic variation? The GPS unit knows where it is. Maybe Mr. Waln has some esoteric electronic nautical hardware unknown to others. Then his emphatic statement: “Finally, GPS units all fail eventually...” Sorry, this is not only incorrect, it’s nonsense. But if Waln believes this then he and his wife had better never fly overseas; they’ll be…
As part of a new partnership with the Marion Bermuda Race, Ocean Navigator has been serving as a clearinghouse for celestial navigators and boat owners wanting contact with each other. We have been happily buried by correspondence, mostly from eligible navigators. This means either that boats are already staffed by competent celestial navigators or, more likely, that a large number of boats are sailing in the electronic class. Race administrator Faith Paulson allowed that many boats are opting for electronic navigation, but also that celestial is still a strong category. The Marion Bermuda Race is considered a Class 1 race by the Offshore Racing Council and follows the Americap handicapping system. The next race begins June 18. Entry fee is $595 per boat. The family-style race does not allow the…
Late in 1944, Capt. Daniel L. Boone and Navigator Willie Leveen were at Santa Maria in the Azores preparing their Douglas C-54 transport for a flight to Ayr (Prestwick), Scotland. Boone had flown the mail since the open-cockpit days of the early 1930s. Leveen had been a flight radio officer on the North Atlantic routes for several years but had recently switched to the position of navigator and was making his fifth North Atlantic flight in that capacity. The standard flight plan route called for a great circle track from Santa Maria to 50 degrees N, 7 degrees 30' W. The flight would then alter course slightly to fly over St. George's Channel and across the Irish Sea toward Prestwick. The trip would be about 1,500 nautical miles and would…
