NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Thousand dollar question
From: Dan Allen
Date: 1999 Aug 02, 5:33 PM
From: Dan Allen
Date: 1999 Aug 02, 5:33 PM
I would buy for my $1,000: Sextant: Astra IIIb Sextant $460 or Used Tamaya Jupiter $425 -- Preferred Calculators: HP-48G $75 -- To program sight reduction formulas TI-36X Solar $18 -- Backup for when batteries die Time: Seiko SLL033 watch $162 -- Highly accurate 192 KHz quartz watch Sony SW radio $100? -- For WWV Nav Books: Bowditch $25 Nautical Almanac $17 GPS: Garmin GPS48 $270 -- good nautical lights or Garmin GPS III $300 -- nice gray-scale display I'm over by about $100. I'd cut back by trying to find a cheaper radio, look for a better deal on a used metal sextant, etc. I would actually spend about double this and get at least two of everything: 2 metal sextants, 2 GPS receivers, 2 calculators, 2 SW radios, etc, which still wouldn't be too bad compared to Radar, depth sounders, etc. Those are important too for navigation, but you really can't get all of these things for just $1000 and have them all be adequate. A fun question to entertain! Let's think of more such questions! Dan Allen danallen@microsoft.com -----Original Message----- From Lu Abel [mailto:lu.abel@ATT.NET] Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 1999 10:47 PM To: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM Subject: Thousand dollar question My previous post on sextants (which also included some opinions on money well spent and not well spent) made me think of a question which will stir some pretty strong thoughts and opinions: You are planning a leisurely trans-Pacific cruise (let's say San Francisco to New Zealand and back), which will take 2+ years. Your boat is already equipped with a knotmeter. You are on a tight budget and have figured you can spend no more than $1000 on additional navigation gear. You can equip you boat any way you wish -- GPS, Loran, or any variety of celestial gear. (you neither own nor can afford a laptop computer) How would you spend your $1000?? (for prices, let's use the current West Marine catalog) Cheers, and let's go at it!! Lu PS - Opinions on a budget of only $500 would also be interesting!