Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

My dad (who has since passed away after a full long life) and I LOVED sailing together. The gulf of mexico was our bath tub. The east coast was a wonderful test. Once, at the beginning of a passage from the dry tortugas to the sea buoy at the end of the ship channel out of Houma, Louisiana, he and I made a bet...... His sailboat (a 62 foot CT), had 3 gps systems. one hooked up to the computer navigation system (the other two were backups)--- I set the system up for him. A year before he and I attended a celestial navigation seminar in New Orleans. He was completely lost by it all (that's when he asked me to add a backup to his gps/ computer navigation system). I ate the course up. I then bought this sextant. Anyway, back to the passage. On the way back from the dry tortugas, he and I made a bet. He bet that I couldn't keep a chart course (made only with a sextant)within 10 miles of his computer generated chart course (made w/ GPS) (remember, 10 miles out in the middle of the ocean is pretty good) -- he knew I probably could but he loved challenging me. I told him I could keep the course within a mile at EVERY point. On that passage, we saw the space shuttle reenter the atmosphere. I cannot tell you how AMAZING that was out in the middle of the gulf at 2 or so in the morning (a bright red trail a quarter of an inch thick that reached from one horizon to about 3/4 of the way across the sky).We met an air craft carrier (on a training mission out of Pensacola I assume) at about 4 in the morning saw it on radar about 20 miles away. I hailed them. They said they have been watching us for the past 2 hours , they told us not to get closer but THEY stopped and let us pass). What a night. I was on watch. NEVER had such a wonderful night. Only after the passage was done, we compared charts. Except for a couple of hours one night when we probably drank too much, my course was within 1/2 mile of his at every point (mostly, I was within 1/4 mile. Learned a few things that have served me well. I took hourly sights. When I took my sextant out from the living quarters, I left it out on deck for at least 15 minutes before I used it so that the plastic would stabilize based on the temperature difference. I calibrated it based on the conditions outside.. (a brass sextant does have the advantage of not contracting and expanding w/ the slight temperature difference between the living quarters below decks and the elements above deck. If the plastic sextant is not stabilized, you will not get accurate shots. Thls is a VERY easy problem to deal with as long as you let the sextant stabilize in the conditions you calibrated it in. I have never had such a modest purchase bring me so much joy. I miss my dad. I miss being out alone on the sail boat w/ him. But I still have this sextant that has helped me chart my course. I know He is smiling down on me. Could go on but then I would become boring. We have had other passages, some where dad turned off the electronics an let me "guide us w/ the stars." They have all been wonderful, but I will never forget that one night.