59° North Sailingvideo
JoJo Pickering // Celestial Navigation Nerd-Out
March 31, 2026 · 54 min · 190 views
What this video covers
Andy Schell and JoJo Pickering, both celestial navigation instructors and 59 North skippers, discuss teaching celestial nav — its philosophy, pedagogy, and practical application offshore.
Pickering teaches online courses; Schell runs an in-person course in Annapolis.0:55 Both describe starting students with the concept of the sun as a lighthouse in the sky, connecting it to the familiar running fix and transferred position lines from the RYA Yachtmaster syllabus.9:41 They cover the celestial sphere model as a teaching aid, the terminology shift from latitude/longitude to declination and Greenwich Hour Angle, and why dead reckoning underpins every celestial fix.15:24 Schell recounts the one passage he navigated purely on celestial: BVI to Bermuda, with crew Mia keeping a GPS log in a notebook for safety but not plotting it.6:52 He explains why approaching Bermuda from the south on celestial is manageable — the south coast is clear beach — while approaching from the north or west demands conservatism because an extensive reef extends miles offshore and can be reached before land is visible.30:34 Both use HO 249 (Air Almanac sight reduction tables) rather than the marine navigation tables.33:38 The conversation closes on the philosophical point that celestial navigation requires genuine comfort with positional uncertainty — a mindset modern GPS use has largely eroded.28:58
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