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"Colin W Kingsbury" writes:
"vincent p. norris" wrote

About five years ago, a friend and several of his friends who have
much more money than I have, sailed a catamaran around the world. A
big one, both hulls 40 feet long. He carried three GPS units, but he
also learned celestial nav before he set out, just in case.

I also sail and have always said that if (when) I go way offshore (eg
Newport-Bermuda) I would learn celestial. Why? practically speaking I always
said I don't want to rely on batteries and satellites.

As a fail-safe, if you turn west won't you get to North America
in some reasonable amount of time?

But to be honest, what's more likely to fail? A couple of ruggedized
solid-state electronic devices in a waterproof bag, or a piece of machinery
built to jewelry precision and a stack of paper tables?

And don't tell me about the satellites- if the GPS network goes down for an
extended time (at sailboat speeds, being without GPS for a few days
shouldn't be a big deal) then I suspect I won't want to be finding
civilization anytime soon.