And, yes we carry a couple of sextants – a cheap Davis model and a more proper metal one.  We also carry sight reduction tables and an almanac.  Once in a rare while, I dig everything out and run a series of star sights.  After two or three days I get back in the swing and my calculated position starts getting close to my always-accurate GPS fix.  Lightening strikes and complete electronic failure aren’t unheard of on cruising boats.

While we don’t go nuts with formal logkeeping when well offshore we do regularly record our position, course, and speed.  We can comfortably fall back to a completely paper-based navigation routine using celestial while well offshore and resorting to taking bearings when approaching land.  You’d be surprised how many boats are out here without a clue about navigation other than entering waypoints in their GPS and following the little pointers.  We know of nine boats that were lost last year because they ran onto reefs.  Two of them completely misread their position and the lights while making evening approaches to Papeete, French Polynesia and this is one of the best marked and lit approaches you’ll ever see.  Another ran into South Minerva Reef because they drew a line from Tonga to New Zealand on their electronic chart and didn’t realize their course crossed one of the most famous reef systems in the South Pacific.