[Trayder]

D.H.-

No doubt about it. There is no substitute for solid navigation skills. Dead reckoning and compass navigation.

True Story:

Sailboat race from Marion Massachusetts to Bermuda. Rules: std. sailing rules but NO electronic navigational equipment unless in the case of an emergency. A sextant and the sun were cruicial. 2 Days out and no sun, nada nill bupkus. A virtual guessing game except for the general course from the start, factoring in the gulf stream currents and what not, a general idea but far from a pinpoint location. 3rd night out BERMUDA!!!.......nope.....a Cruise ship....Doah. Next morning the crew is a bit restless beacuse again it is overcast. Hmmmmm again no sun sight. One thing that is good is the boat is making amazing speed and wherever the boat was headed, it was going to get there fast but going north or south of Bermuda would suck, for obvious reasons.

The crew is a bit resless until the gentleman at the wheel calmly looks up at the sky , then looks at a piece of paper he pulled out from his back pocket, looks in the sky again and eloquently point off the bow 30 degrees and proclaims " Bermuda is that way" Everyone stops their tactical conversation and in almost unison and looked at the helmsman and say "HUH"????."look up" the Helmsman said. Nothing but an overcast day and a set of Airplane contrails........Yup, that peice of paper the helmsman had was the Airplane routing scheduale and he knew what type of plane flew over head and sure enough it was American Airlines flight XYZ from Boston to Bermuda. The Boat made port severall hours later in 2nd place out of 300+ boats. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] BAsic Navigational skills and a bit of ingeanuity