NavList:

This thread reminded me of a couple passages in "The Long Way" by Bernard Moitessier.  His tale of sailing around the world and then some singlehanded in the '68 Golden Globe Round the World Yacht Race.  On page 24, footnote 1, he describes using an "absurd" AP 600 miles away and then doing several iterations of H.O. 249 (AP 3270) reaching a more accurate estimated positon each time just as described by Mr. Howard below.  Later in the book he advocates using his sextant sans telescope to achive more accurate star sights. A technique Ive seen suggested here on NAVLIST at least once.  I have included both relevant pages for perusal.  Provided you had a good sextant, almanac of some kind and knew what time it was I think you could find where you are, if you knew where you were at some recent point.  For example if blown asunder from your last known fix and onto a mystery island.  Motitessier also talks of keeping track of his journey by penciling his route onto a globe he kept onboard Joshua, although he doesn't say weather he used it to plot rough fixes as described by Mr. Kolbe.  Probably not.  Hope this helps.

Dustin Baenen