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Jeremy, you wrote:
"Funny thing about that, it was my textbook for 3 semesters of CelNav in
college."

LOL. Well, one CAN use an encyclopedia as a textbook. Of course, if you have
good instructors, nothing else matters.

""Have" or "use" as they are not one in the same.  At the moment, ll I have
is a WW2 aircraft sextant.  I am planning on getting a sextant when I get
home to practice some lunars."

Before you buy, you should ask on the list here. There's a lot of experience
in the group with respect to sextant purchases.

And you wrote:
"As far as using sextants, I tend to use what is on the ship.  I will take
some pictures of our various navigation tools and post a link to a photo
gallery for those who are interested."

Excellent. I would love to see that. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who
would like to see the vessel you're on.

You wrote:
"In a strange twist of fate, I have read very few navigational texts, and
less history.  I have read most of Bowditch, some Dutton's, and then the
Tables I use (HO 214, HO 229, HO 249, Bruce Starke's Lunar Tables).
Everything else I know is from instruction by navigators.  This is why I
think that I am somewhat lost when people reference some other tables or use
terms that I am not familiar with."

Then I have two book recommendations for you and one general suggestion.
First, get a copy of Mixter's "Primer of Navigation" --one of the original
editions from the 1940s. It's really well-written and every navigation
enthusiast I know who has a copy just loves it. They turn up on ebay fairly
often. Second, read Lecky's "Wrinkles in Practical Navigation" which was
written in the late 19th century. It's wonderful. Much of the advice in it
is valid today, and it will fill in a lot of that historical terminology as
well as providing an excellent summary of the state of navigation c.1880.
And best of all, it's available for free online via Google Books. You can
download dozens and dozens of fascinating old navigation books from Google
these days. Care to read a Bowditch from 1826?? That used to be a difficult
proposition: either a trip to a research library and many hours sitting in
an uncomfortable chair, or a couple of hundred dollars for a "reading copy"
(in other words, a badly damaged copy) at a used book store. But within the
past five years, it's all changed. Here is Lecky's Wrinkles:
 http://books.google.com/books?id=BzIAAAAAQAAJ
And here is the 1826 edition of Bowditch:
 http://books.google.com/books?id=KcVBAAAAIAAJ
You could get lost in Google Books so remember to come up for air. Depending
on your geographic location, you can download these books in their entirety
as pdf files. They are typically on the order of 50 megabytes, so if you
don't have high-speed access, it's probably worth making a list of the ones
you want and hitting an Internet cafe just for the downloads. Great stuff!

Of the dreaded, dunking Dyer Dhows at Mystic Seaport, you wrote:
"No I never capsized, but they are the slowest, least responsive, boat I've
ever sailed."

LOL. I'll tell the little boats you said 'hi'. :-)

I wrote previously:
Of course, now I can estimate your age. Somewhere between 30 and 35? I'll
guess 32. Am I close?? :-) That makes you a bona-fide 'kid' by NavList's
statistics.

"I'm 32, so you are quite right.  I just wonder how many sights I've taken,
it must number in the hundreds."

Ha! I have to give myself a cookie for a good guess. Incidentally, so
there's no possibility of mis-understanding, the fact that you are younger
than most of us (I'm younger than "most of us" here, and I'm a dozen years
older than you) is a *good* thing from where I stand. And I would bet that
you have taken more sights at sea in the past ten years than anyone else on
NavList. There are some members who undoubtedly took more sights thirty or
forty years ago, but I'm sure you have the top position for recent sights.
I've very much enjoyed your posts, too.

 -FER


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