by Richard Crockett
Now here’s something Quite Interesting (QI) for those with an interest and passion for navigation. It’s about Marvin Creamer who sailed the world without instruments, using simply the “zenith method”.
Without instruments Creamer was circumnavigating the globe using the zenith method, plus keen observation of waves, wind and sun. Creamer’s only “time-piece” aboard Globe Star was a giant sand-glass to divide the watches between owner and crew. That’s it in a nutshell.
It’s an interesting read, and one that those interested in navigation should absorb as it gives an interesting insight as to just how people navigated in ancient times, and how far navigation has progressed today where GPS is a “norm” for a boat. Plus, one could practice his methods on long night watches.
In the modern electronic age we live and sail in today, electronics rule our sailing world. Sadly many a boat owner feels safe in the knowledge that he has a massive array of electronic instruments giving a vast amount of information, yet some are pretty clueless as to what it all means and how to interpret it intelligently.
I won’t dwell on this as it’s worthy of a serious feature on it’s own.
A bonus read is a short editorial by Frank Robb entitled “Back-Stoep Nav. – and artificial horizons”.
READ IT ALL HERE: Pages from 1983 07 – SA Yachting – OCR