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Sextant

The Lost Art of Dead Reckoning

For all the precision of modern technology, sometimes there’s no substitute for the tried-and-true art of dead reckoning.

Memory Lane: Using A Sextant for Nautical Navigation

Take a stroll down the memory lane of navigation. Many years ago, during what often seems like another lifetime, it was my job as a U.S. Merchant Marine officer to shoot a couple sun sights a day with a sextant, weather permitting. The task was a pleasure, really. It called for a set of physical skills that a guy like me could first learn, then practice, and then finally master in an almost artsy, albeit seriously practical way.

Absolute 70 Fly

Absolute 70 Fly Reviewed

Twin 1,000-hp Volvo Penta D13s and 285 nautical miles of range give the new Absolute 70 Fly the room and speed to roam.

Twin delivery captains Assen and Nikolay Alexandrov standing on the bow deck of a motor yacht docked alongside a pier.

The Twins

After more than 500,000 nautical miles as yacht delivery captains, Assen and Nikolay Alexandrov are still bringing boats home.

Alt Text: A close-up view of two polished stainless-steel windlasses and anchor gypsies mounted on the white foredeck of a yacht under a partly cloudy sky.

Anchors Aweigh

Windlass and ground tackle maintenance can make all the difference in an emergency.

A Garmin marine chartplotter display screen showing a digital nautical map with AIS vessel tracking, route waypoints, and navigation data overlay.

Understanding AIS

Good seamanship means using every available tool, but never relying on any one alone.

Three side-by-side screenshots from the Navionics app showing nautical charts of Hell Gate and Wards Island, contrasting a correct manually plotted water route on the left with two flawed AI-generated routes on the middle and right that erroneously plot course lines directly across land.

A Suspicious Plot

I used AI to chart a course through a notorious waterway. The results were unusable.

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