Emergency Navigation: Improvised and No-Instrument Methods for the Prudent Mariner, 2nd Edition

This book is not about what to do in an emergency, it is about what to do always. All of the techniques should be practiced all the time while on board. Electronic navigation should almost only be used for confirmation purposes.The message in the book is quite powerful and the techniques to the point. The book is well written in easily understandable terms.I used some of these techniques on two Atlantic crossings and was quite pleasantly surprised at the accuracy of one's plots once you get the techniques under the belt.A good book to read for all those who venture out on the wide blue sea. A must read before you depart and a good read even for experienced sailors.Very useful indeed.

This book is full of incredibly dense material on the subject of emergency navigation. It covers many different scenarios, each assuming you have lost a different set of equipment. Each section rapidly goes from beginner "good to know" info to advanced computations for calculating your position. Some of the stuff is so esoteric that you would need a lot of practice to remember any of it.You can take a lot of practical information away from just a casual read through each section, though. Some of the emergency techniques are truly novel and I have seen nowhere else.Many sections refer to other sections of the book. I downloaded this on Kindle so it was frustrating to try to flip to another area of to jog my memory or to read the relevant chapter.

How can we possibly be more delighted with a how-to book. Took up the hobby of sextant navigation a few years back at age 68 and never thought to look for more how-to information than the instructions that came with the Davis Mark 3 sextant. Pinpoint accuracy at home using Mars and Jupiter with an artificial horizon but can't remember most of the instructions after a week or two. So, off to Amazon to buy cheat sheet "Quick Reference Celestial Navigation" and that's when we discovered books named "Emergency Navigation" and "How To Use Plastic Sextants" by the same author, David Burch, an expert in the field of celestial navigation with his own Starpath School of Navigation. Wow, talk about getting to know your subject. Its amazing how many different star clusters and constellations point you to the North Star. Luckily, we also found a spreadsheet to do all the math by Bill Ritchie named Astron Sight Reduction. Love the books by David Burch and will keep them close to help remember the how-to's.

For starters, I have the Kindle edition which is fine and I can see no noticeable loss in readability. In fact it's probably one of the better Kindle formatted books I've come across. This book is not a secret list of simple techniques that will guide you around the world safely if your GPS packs in and your sextant cracks in half. Navigating without GPS is just as difficult as it always has been, and even more so without handy devices like sextants and scientific calculators.The knock on this book is that it correctly reflects the reality of emergency navigation. You're likely to lose some, but not all, of your navigational gear. Maybe you have a sextant but no almanac. Maybe you have compass and a fried GPS. Maybe you're in the polar regions, but chances are you're in the tropics or middle latitudes. Maybe you have nothing but a wrist watch.Because each of these scenarios presents different variables, your approach needs to be flexible and as such so is the format of the book. There is a lot of "you could do it this way if you have x and y but not z". It's a bit confusing at times, but it's also representative of what a true emergency navigation experience will be like. Martians won't beam down and take all your gear, instead a lightning strike or rollover will render most of it inoperable.Additionally, you'll need to practice these techniques. This isn't something that you keep in your ditch bag, instead there is a lot of information that you will need to regularly practice in order to have a realistic chance of using successfully.

I only do coastal sailing during the day so I bought the book more out of interest than necessity. I love the section covering celestial navigation. The author's description of using the Orion constellation as well as the north star was a pleasure to read. I've reread it multiple times. The section on navigating by the sun is a little more complex but equally fascinating. The author describes methods that involve having and not having an astrolabe. I would definitely recommend and I bought it for my father.

Not very useful for an inland boater. It covers too much "Oh my God" stuff that is not very useful to some Bass Fisherman.

I am an aspiring tramp sailor. Because of that I am trying to read some books that will make me salty. This one is very good. The claim is that the time to learn what to do in an emergency is before the emergency. Here are methods for dealing with missing elements to one's navigational kit. For anyone who dreams of sailing over the horizon, I recommend that you study this book first.

This is a GREAT book on emergency navigation. It should be well read BEFORE you set sail. The book explains how you can navigate in almost any situation... and relies heavily on reading the stars, not instruments and electronics. If you can perform the basics, at least you will always know where you are.... and where you are going.

Um livro essencial para todo navegador que pretende se aventurar em águas distantes.

If you are an inexperienced amateur navigator like me you will still find this book fascinating. David Burch’s explanations are crystal clear. Reading this book has helped me to more clearly understand the basic principles of navigation with a sextant with or without the convenience of a computer or chart plotter. The techniques discussed explain how the various wandering seafarers were able to navigate vast distance long before the invention of the sextants and accurate watches and clock.

Das ist weniger ein survival Buch als ein sehr vertiefender Kurs in die Grundlagen jeglicher Navigation. Faszinierend, welche Möglichkeiten man dennoch hat, wenn das eine oder andere Werkzeug zur Positionsbestimmung ausfällt. Oder gar alle! Freue mich auf den nächsten Segeltörn, um mich und die Crew mit den verschiedenen Szenarien vertraut zu machen.

I love it. So sad that these skills are becoming rarer every day.If ever GPS is switched off (societal collapse), or you personally get marooned and your battery dies, this knowledge will be gold dust.

A must for any blue water skipper and very interesting for all the others. Easy to read snd to understand.