> It's darn handy to know how to use alternatives though.

> Yup, Just make sure you memorize the instructions.

> Like being able to
> read stars at night, or knowing how to use sticks or a watch to tell you
> your compass points. Knowing the currents. And so on and so forth.

> You wear a dial watch with hands? Point the hour hand at the sun, and the
> 12 o'clock position is pointed roughly due south. Good reason to not wear
> a digital watch eh?

I sincerely hope you do not plan to acutally navigate like this. Particularly in an emergency. For you have the right idea, but the wrong technique. Consider jsut what you wrote, and htis example: It is 6 pm and the sun is setting soon. In this case I line my hour hand up with the sun ( which still sets roughly in the wast each day), and then the 12 oclock position is NOT pointed south, but East. (opposite side of th 6 oclock position)

Two things to improve on this: A:) You have to be on standard time. Daylight saving time doesn't work so good. So if you are paddling in th summer, when the weather is nice, you'll be off by a bit. B:) you dont find your north/south direction with the 12 o'clock position on the dial. Instead, you split the distance between the hour hand and the 12 o'clock position, and the line projected through that pont runs north and south. So, going back th the example, at 6 pm you point the hour hand at the sun, and plitting the distance between 6 and 12 I get either 9 or 3. sighting along the line that the 9 and the 3 sit on, I am either looking north or south. I can usually figure out which is which by looking at the sun and knowing the time of day ( sunis to the east in the morning, etc.

Of course if you have a true 24 hour watch, then the whole thing changes again. In this case your technique is fine. Match the hour hand with the sun's position. sunrise at 0600 is east, and sunset at 1800 is west, with north being 2400/0000 and south being 1200.

And with a digital watch, you trace the time on a piece of paper, or scratch it in the sandy beach, by just drawing a clock face.

Of course, on a cloudy day, with no visible sun to take a bearing on, this whole technique fails. Besides, who is going to remember all this?

As you get older, they say, your memory is the third thing you lose. It seems I 've forgotten what the first two things were. Sorry. Paul Jacobson