Search Results for: celestial navigation

May/June 2014 Issue 218: Wreck of the brig Jezebel

Editor’s note: This fictionalized account is an amalgam of several true incidents, most notably the wreck of the brig Commerce off west Africa in the 19th century. The two-masted brig Jezebel, built on the Clyde in Scotland in 1855 was 80 feet on deck with a draft of 11 feet. The brig was commanded by R. Kenneth Hamilton who had developed a reputation for reliability and honesty in the trade from Cape Town to European ports. Jezebel was designed to carry cargo up and down the coast of west Africa from Cape Town to Monrovia and then to Gibraltar. Capt. Hamilton had previously been involved in the trade of dried fish stock in Bergen and was in command of Jezebel only a few short months. Jezebel was in the ivory…
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Nav tools found at wreck site

In addition to being a circumnavigator, ON contributing editor Jeff Williams is also a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) pilot on board the NOAA ship Okeanos Explorer. The research vessel Okeanos Explorer is currently using ROVs to explore parts of the sea floor in the Gulf of Mexico. One the areas of interest is a 19th century shipwreck site. While using an ROV to carefully image the shipwreck site, the investigators found two navigational tools poking out of the bottom sediment. On closer inspection these artifacts turned out to be a chronometer and an octant (a sight-taking instrument that subtends one eighth of a circle compared the the sextant's one sixth). For an ocean sailor like Jeff, who has used celestial navigation in his sailing  exploits, the discovery of the 19th…
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Tim Queeney

Tim Queeney is the long-time editor of Ocean Navigator magazine and the Ocean Navigator website. He is also an experienced navigation instructor, with more than 20 years experience teaching celestial navigation, coastal navigation and radar navigation/collision avoidance courses both ashore and at sea aboard the schooners Ocean Star, Westward, Spirit of Massachusetts and Californian. He has also made numerous offshore and coastal passages aboard a variety of craft and has raced in the Marion to Bermuda, Daytona to Bermuda and Miami to Montego Bay races.
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Seminars at Sea on Oliver Hazard Perry

Come experience the ultimate offshore sailing adventure Hone your navigation, seamanship, and meteorology skills with Captain Richard Bailey, and the Ocean Navigator School of Seamanship (ONSOS) aboard SSV Oliver Hazard Perry. This exceptional partnership offers adventurous participants the experience of a lifetime. The result is ONSOS curriculum taught aboard a ship that links hundreds of years of tradition to modern time.   VOYAGE DATES: Newport to Bermuda Sept. 21-28, 2014 Bermuda to Portland, ME Sept. 28 - Oct. 5, 2014 VOYAGE PRICES:  $3,100 per person per week (based on double occupancy in a private state-room en-suite heads)  $2,150 per person per week (in lower berthing area in multi-bunk cabins) This includes all meals and instruction, but does not include travel expenses to and from Bermuda if you only join for…
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The equation of time

Mention the phrase “equation of time,” and most people will probably think you are speaking of some obscure economic formula that has to do with life expectancy versus retirement income. But we celestial navigators we know better. Or do we? The equation of time involves the relationship and difference between solar apparent time and mean solar time; which is the time on our watches. In order to reconcile the difference — no more than 16.4 minutes — the equation of time was formulated as a convenient means of connecting the two. The formula describing this relationship is as follows: Equation of time = mean solar time - apparent solar. What this formula represents simply is the relationship (difference) between apparent solar time and mean solar time at the observer’s position.…
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Sextants in the Clipper Race

When you think of vessels that might serve as platforms for learning celestial navigation, a traditional ship like Oliver Hazard Perry, currently being finished in Rhode Island and the vessel on which ON will teach two week-long offshore navigation and weather cruises next fall, springs to mind. So it's intriguing to hear that the crew of Switzerland, a race boat competing in the Clipper Round the World Race, is learning how to handle a sextant and do sight reductions while at sea. The fleet is motorsailing to Hong Kong for the restart of Leg 9 after that leg was halted on Feb. 25 when three boats experienced forestay failures due to faulty turnbuckles. According to skipper Vicky Elis, the crew are eager to practice their celestial skills. “Today, out came…
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The ultimate offshore seamanship experience

There are few better ways to learn seamanship and navigation than going offshore. And the best way to go offshore is on board the new, three-masted, ship-rigged training vessel Oliver Hazard Perry. With eight private double staterooms available, you and your spouse can both come along. You can take celestial navigation and seamanship courses as a team or one spouse can study while the other just enjoys the passage. Our first voyage will be in September 2014 from Newport to Bermuda and return. You can sign on to sail one way or for the round trip. The 196-foot steel-hulled Perry, Rhode Island’s official sail education vessel, has been constructed according to U.S. Coast Guard regulations and American Bureau of Shipping standards for stability and safety. This is a strong, safe…
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Teaching sun, stars and sextant in the age of GPS

To the editor: A little more than a century ago, Joseph Conrad sat for his mate and master’s tickets in the British merchant service. The deep-water sailor and future novelist of the sea was examined in the core-curriculum of the mariner’s trade: winds and currents, lights and signals, seamanship and cargo handling, charter parties and bills of lading. But he also had to demonstrate competence in that singular discipline — celestial navigation — without which the bulk of his nautical training and experience would have counted for nothing. In other words, he had to be able to find his way across the oceans of the world. Not much has fundamentally changed in the 130 years since Conrad passed for master. Even in the age of GPS, the navigator’s basic tools…
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A final star to Bermuda

It was 0430 and the question was: Do you know where your boat is? That was the issue Tuesday morning, June 18, our last daybreak (presumably!) as we sailed in the celestial class in the 2013 Marion Bermuda Race. Up to that point we had experienced four days of fantastic reaching at, or above, hull speed. But all things come to an end. We were south of the Gulf Stream where many a strong showing has come to grief in the Bermuda High. Light, variable winds from the south were pushing us to the east, and when you are dead reckoning, this is more than an annoyance. It’s a real problem. A few meager knots of boat speed chasing happy tell-tails all over the compass makes course and speed more…
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Young ocean racer hooked on sailing

To the editor: Although my dad, Rick Higgins, had sailed in the previous two Marion Bermuda Races, participating in the race myself was the last thing I pictured doing. Then, I had a sudden change of heart. After the 2011 race, I asked the owner of Hotspur II, Ron Wisner, if I could join the crew for the next one. He surprised both me and my father, Hotspur’s two-time race cook, by saying yes. I was just 14 at the time. From that moment on, I was determined to make sure that Ron followed through with his commitment. Every time I saw Ron, I reminded him of his promise to me. My dogged persistence affected him, and he even called the race committee to make sure that I would be…
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