Saga47swan Sailingvideo
Aspiring Yachtmaster Ocean doing her first noon sight in preparation for her Atlantic Crossing.
April 24, 2025 · 5 min · 304 views
What this video covers
A student working toward her Yachtmaster Ocean certification takes her first noon sight by sextant aboard Saga, with an experienced skipper instructing her through each step. The lesson covers the full noon-sight reduction sequence: timing the meridian passage using estimated position and nautical almanac tables, taking multiple sights as the sun rises and then falls to catch the highest altitude, and applying corrections in order — index error (1.8 on the arc, taken off), height of eye (1.0), and atmospheric refraction using the April-to-September column.0:52 The instructor then walks through extracting the sun's declination from the almanac for the day and time (around 1230 UTC), interpolating for the remaining 30 minutes using the correction-for-minutes-of-declination table, and computing the final latitude.3:10 The student's result comes out 5 miles from the GPS position — 51°57' versus the calculated 51°63'.3:43 She notes her main handling difficulty was managing the sextant filters to keep the sun in view.4:08 The skipper holds course throughout to keep the boat steady for the sights.4:58 A first noon sight within 5 miles is achievable even when sextant handling feels awkward on land.
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