Ritchie SP-5 Compass

[Ralph Masters]

Waterdog,
You are on the mark.  I sail in San Diego bay mostly and it's more a sense of where my next tack should be on the compass, not where the port is.  If I really don't want to be lost I compute the route out on charts then plug in way points into the GPS.  How they got to the same place twice in a row in the New World back in 1492 I'll never understand.  My father spent 26 years in the submarine service and he was a navigator.  He got one time a day, at night running on the surface to charge batteries, to get his planet lines and moon lines, if he could see them. And never came back late.

Ralph
Ciao Bella

[Ted Pounds]

Here's a fascinating book: "Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time".  I highly recommend it if you want to know the troubles they had navigating in the old days and how they overcame them.

[Ralph Masters]

Ted,
thanks for the book report, I'll have to check it out.  I have a copy of Mary Blewit's Clestial Navigation that I'm going through.  If only my dad were still with us.  Oh well what to do, you spend most of your teen years thinking your smarter then they are only to find out your not after it's too late.

Ralph

[Ken Juul]

for the latest in celestial navigation sign up for the ocean navigator newsletter....http://www.oceannavigator.com/section/term/16246

Bunch of other interesting stuff on the home page

[TonyP]

We are udating our compass to a Plastimo 135 Olympic as no one here in Oz had parts. And at $400 (WITH BINNICAL AND COVER) was the cheapest option.
Tonight around midnight (before 8am local ) I rang Ritchie and ordered the dome and Oring as well as the filler Oring for under $60 plus postage ...
I will get a local compass guy to repair and refill once I receive the parts the put up for sale here in Oz as they are $1350 to replace so may get some good bucks to cover replacement.
We also updating all instruments this coming weekend with Raymarine 60+ as well as a SPX 5 autopilot whilst a full soda blast and re antifoul .... woo hooo almost new boat.

cheers
Tony

[Lance Jones]

Another modern assist in beginning celestial nav is google sky for your smartphone. In the army, I was told I never could find Uranus.  :rollingNow I find it first time every time!