solo circumnavigation by sextant

[MurrayM]

Dare to Dream!

B.C. man completes 266-day solo sail around the world by chart and sextant...

Only about 300 people have successfully sailed solo around the world. Just six people — with terHart being the only North American — have done it navigating by pen, paper, charts and a sextant.

https://globalnews.ca/news/7193683/bc-solo-sailor-around-the-world-traditional-methods/

Update: Reporter on video was wrong...he didn't have to quarantine upon arrival in Victoria

 

[DCDC]

Other solo circumnavigations with sextant navigation:

Chichester, 1966
Knox-Johnston, Golden Globe 1968
Moitessier, Golden Globe 1968
Van Den Heede, Golden Globe 2019
Scats, Golden Globe 2019
Kopar, Golden Globe 2019
Ramdmaa, Golden Globe 2019

The Golden Globe retro races were non-stop. Another is planned for 2022.

Before Stella, we cruised for 5 years/14knm on our 40’ steel ketch, same design as Moitessier’s Joshua.

 

[KnotYet]

I'm pretty sure that guy in 'The Dove' did it before GPS, etc.
Then, of course, there was Tania Aebi but she had a passenger for a few miles...

 

[Larry M]

Not to take anything away from the B.C. guy but how about Joshua Slocum?

 

[Toki]

The article didn't mention specific landfalls, and whether they were precisely planned or by chance. If one isn't concerned with aiming toward specific ports and just wants to stay on the water and out of trouble, a course can be plotted using simple noon sightings that will keep you on track +/-100 miles. If one is going port to port and wants to get there efficiently and accurately, that's a whole 'nuther level of sextantmanship.

 

[KnotYet]

The article didn't mention specific landfalls, and whether they were precisely planned or by chance. If one isn't concerned with aiming toward specific ports and just wants to stay on the water and out of trouble, a course can be plotted using simple noon sightings that will keep you on track +/-100 miles. If one is going port to port and wants to get there efficiently and accurately, that's a whole 'nuther level of sextantmanship.

Even in the hands of a careful beginner, noon sights can get you within 10 miles or so
of your true position, at least in decent weather.

 

[Toki]

Even in the hands of a careful beginner, noon sights can get you within 10 miles or so
of your true position, at least in decent weather.

True, if you've got a good sextant, it's calibrated, and all correction factors are correctly applied. I've found that with my Davis plastic sextant and quick sightings with no corrections, I can get within the 50 mile range.

Of course, my favorite way to do this is to stand on deck taking multiple sights, mumble numbers to myself and jot things down in a notepad, then casually glance at the coordinates on my phone and proudly exclaim our precise coordinates to my adoring crew.

 

[KnotYet]

True, if you've got a good sextant, it's calibrated, and all correction factors are correctly applied. I've found that with my Davis plastic sextant and quick sightings with no corrections, I can get within the 50 mile range.

Of course, my favorite way to do this is to stand on deck taking multiple sights, mumble numbers to myself and jot things down in a notepad, then casually glance at the coordinates on my phone and proudly exclaim our precise coordinates to my adoring crew.

Hee-hee!


I've got one of those Davis plastic jobs in its plastic box somewhere.
It will come out when someone or something crashes the GPS network.
Or when someone asks how we navigated before the 'Modern Times'!

 

[rsn48]

Two quotes by Frances Chichester after sailing around the world. When he left from England his boat was complete with 45 bottles of gin:

"Any damn fool can navigate the world sober. It takes a really good sailor to do it drunk."

"To the question, "When were your spirits at the lowest ebb?" the obvious answer seemed to be, "When the gin gave out."

 

[GoneFarrell]

I don't even have a sextant.

But I do have good Gin!

 

[Woodland Hills]

Dare to Dream!



https://globalnews.ca/news/7193683/bc-solo-sailor-around-the-world-traditional-methods/

Update: Reporter on video was wrong...he didn't have to quarantine upon arrival in Victoria

I call bullshit! What about Magellan, Cook, Slocum and every other sailor prior to the 1980’s or whenever GPS navigation arrived? There must have been tens of thousands of circumnavigations made by sextant in the past. This is almost as stupid as the claim that Columbus “discovered” North America.....

Now if this guy had used just an astrolabe and a sunstone I might be impressed!

 

[Larry M]

From the video it oooks like he has radar. That sure helps when approaching land. He has a sat phone and he’s doing Instagram? Too easy to cheat imho.

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Mr. WH. Took the words right out of my mouth. Sextants only became really accurate after the invention of a reliable time piece. Previous to that, the old log over the side trick.
I don't expect the Vikings had any sexti (what IS the plural of sextant?) aboard.

 

[rsn48]

what IS the plural of sextant?

"Sexy twins."

 

[MurrayM]

Any of the poo-poo'ers willing to one-up the dude?

Crickets...

 

[Frosty]

I call bullshit! What about Magellan, Cook, Slocum and every other sailor prior to the 1980’s or whenever GPS navigation arrived? There must have been tens of thousands of circumnavigations made by sextant in the past.

To be fair though, they said about 300 *solo* sailors. I don't think Magellan, Cook, or most of those other "thousands" back in the day were solo.

 

[Woodland Hills]

To be fair though, they said about 300 *solo* sailors. I don't think Magellan, Cook, or most of those other "thousands" back in the day were solo.

Slocum was and every other solo circumnavigator after him for a hundred years or more did it with just a sextant. It irks me that someone will do what was perfectly ordinary 100 years ago and then act like it was a great accomplishment. I did the dishes entirely by hand last night using no electronic or mechanical aids: should I call the TV news and see if they will report it?

 

[MurrayM]

Slocum was and every other solo circumnavigator after him for a hundred years or more did it with just a sextant...

Did a quick search and found the Josua Slocum Society who have a chronological list of solo circumnavigators.

There was very little solo circumnavigation activity in the early days. They have the first seven listed as happening in;

1898
1925
1929
1932
1937
1938
1943,

so I doubt very much that many did it by sextant alone. He also did it with only one landfall and said he was put about six weeks behind schedule due too weird weather.

LIST OF SOLO CIRCUMNAVIGATORS

Feel free to do it in a style you deem worthy of note.

 

[Datenight]

When crossing the Atlantic in December we used the sextant every day. My best sight got us within 3 miles of the GPS position. My cousin was within 1-2 miles almost every time.

Rob

 

[Toki]

When crossing the Atlantic in December we used the sextant every day. My best sight got us within 3 miles of the GPS position. My cousin was within 1-2 miles almost every time.

Rob

Just out of curiosity, was that with just noon sightings, or were there celestial sightings mixed in? How well do you think your sextant was calibrated? How fussy did you get with the various correction factors?

Like I said above, with my cheap plastic sextant, no corrections, and a watch of unknown accuracy I'm lucky to get within 20 miles of position!

 

[FF]

"It irks me that someone will do what was perfectly ordinary 100 years ago and then act like it was a great accomplishment. I did the dishes entirely by hand last night using no electronic or mechanical aids: should I call the TV news and see if they will report it?"


Rinse water by gravity from a tank on the overhead , filled with a bucket?