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Dan-
 Obviously I have some interest in celestial but when I hear  that arguement against GPS 
holds no water. One can break a sextant quite easily, in fact I defy anyone 
to drop a sextant 4' to a hard deck and then use it again. Most GPSes can 
tolerate a similar drop, or at least a good fumble bouncing on one's feet. 
Most sextants can't.
 If you have a sextant you need a backup, figure $500 for the first sextant 
and $125 for the cheap Davis backup. That's enough money for six GPSes or 
four GPSes plus two solar chargers, four sets of rechargeable batteries, and 
a gross or so or regular batteries as well.

 Sorry, but "the dog ate my navigational instrument" doesn't have any bearing 
on the choice of instrument, in fact it makes the GPS more "reliable" since 
you can carry 4-6 of them for the price of a minimal sextant with backup. As 
for the entire GPS constellation going down...if THAT happens the odds are 
that WW3 has broken out or aliens have arrived with an attitude. In either 
case navigation will be the least problem.

   

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