Junior Navigation / offshore navigation

What happens when your GPS fails? Have fun and satisfy your curiosity about boating in the days before electronics in the Junior Navigation course.  Learn to use a marine sextant to take sights on celestial objects such as the sun.  Even if you are not traveling long distances off shore, remember that GPS is not infallible, nor always available.  Be confident when no aids to navigation or land objects are in sight.

In Junior Navigation, you will continue to use GPS as the primary position sensor as you learned in Piloting and Advanced Piloting, but with celestial navigation as your backup technique. Because terrestrial landmarks are no longer visible to the offshore navigator, you will learn to use a marine sextant and the sun as your reference point, derive a line of position, and develop a running fix. You will also learn to calculate your latitude from a noon sight on the sun.

• Determining precise time
• Using the Nautical Almanac
• Taking sextant sights of the sun
• Reducing sights to establish lines of position
• Determining latitude from a noon sight
• Using special charts and plotting sheets for offshore navigation
• Setting offshore navigational routines for recreational craft

This interesting and challenging course emphasizes the practical aspects of daytime celestial navigation. You will also learn to prepare a sight folder that documents your positioning skills using sights taken on the sun. The course will take approximately 14 weeks to complete and you will have two additional weeks to complete an open book exam.

Junior Navigation is the first of a two-part program of study in offshore (open coast) navigation. It is designed as a practical, how-to-course. Subject matter includes basic concepts of celestial navigation; how to use the mariner's sextant to take sights of the sun; the importance and techniques of accurate time determination; use of the Nautical Almanac; how to reduce sights to establish lines of position (LOPs); and the use of unique charts, plotting sheets and other navigational data for offshore positioning and passage planning.

The Student Kit includes the Student Manual and SR, CLS, and other forms and charts

This is an advanced navigation course in that you will learn to hands-on how to use the Sexton to navigate.

To learn more details about this course please contact the instructor.  He will answer your specific questions about this course you may have.