After Twenty Years, Naval Academy Brings Back Celestial Navigation
Clark February 18th, 2016
After removing it from their standard curriculum for nearly two decades, the navy has decided that the threat of cyberterrorism, electrical pulse attacks, lightening strikes, and other potential blackouts of the GPS system warrant reinstating the age-old art. The US Coast Guard, which stripped it from their curriculum a decade ago, is following suit.
Should cruisers be taking a hint?
You can read about it in the Capital Gazette or The Washington Post
The GPS system has never been “brought down,” according to the government, but local disturbances and drop-outs are commonplace. And it’s conceivable that the system might be brought down intentionally by the good guys so the bad guys can’t use it. My mole in the commercial shipping world says they have to be up on their celestial for any trip to the Persian Gulf, for just these reasons.
My first time cruising, in the eighties, our whole trip across the Pacific was by sextant, but I wasn’t doing the navigating. Since then I’ve always carried a sextant with the tables and a nautical almanac, and I’ve occasionally taken a few sights, just to convince myself that, in a pinch, I might, sort of, probably, eventually, be able to figure out where the hell I was, more or less.
Maybe it’s time to get more serious about it? If nothing else, it might be fun.
