The Lo-Tech Navigator

If you're planning to navigate this is not the book you'll need. However, it is very entertaining to read because it gets you thinking. It gives for example a very neat way of dividing a 90 degrees angle in ten degrees intervals by just using quadrille paper. Try getting 50 deg. without a protractor!Another surprise was the "Seafarer's Sundial" which is a simple implementation of the old (17th century) universal ring sundial which gives solar time as well as the direction of the geographical north. It is true the author doesn't explain the principle of operation and just gives instructions on its use.All in all, the book is short on the explanation of principles of navigation (one reason for only 4 stars), but its purpose is just to entertain, which it certainly does.For those interested in a survey of navigation in general, I loved "The lost art of finding our way" by J.E. Huth

For the yachtsman who likes to fiddle with different ways to determine his position. Several sea stories included.

Awesome fun book. Easy to read and play with. Really helped me understand navigation, and have fun too. It's a keeper for me.

Just book for kids, that's it. Almost totally irrelevant for adults interested in emergency navigation for any practical purpose. Also, as in many other similar books, the issues of celestial navigation in southern hemisphere are totally ignored.

Has some good information but it is written in a kids book type format with silly irrelavent tests and stories that don't relate at all to the subject matter. Would be good to teach kids from but if you have any celestial navigation experience and some common sense not really worth your time... probably entertaining for the armchair sailor.

I really liked this book! I treat it like an idea book on basic navigation using common, inexpensive materials. It is not an emergency navigation book (e.g. Burch) – it is hands-on primer on how the tools of ocean navigation work. As I read the book, I started to think of other ways I could "MacGyver" an octant or backstaff together.Appreciate the book for what it is. It is not a treatise on celestial navigation, however, you can learn some celestial navigation using the home-made tools described in the book.

I found this book while looking for books on celestial navigation. This is one is not specifically about celestial navigation (though it does have some excellent ideas and strategies for low-tech celestial, too) but when I read the description it looked interesting. So I decided to get it and check it out.I was not at all disappointed. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading it and have learned the proverbial "boat load" (no pun intended) from it. I just wish I could remember all of it!It was a fun read and very, very interesting. I loved it.Service was great.

Although having read many books on celestial navigation and practiced it occasionally, this is the first book that gave me a clear mental picture of what I was calculating when I did the calculations. The many other navigation tools and techniques presented were very useful and, although secondary to me personally, were still of great value for situations without high technology.Elbert