Nice article in the NYTimes about navigation without instruments; it might be of interest here, as a cautionary tale if nothing else.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/21/opinion/sunday/losing-our-way-in-the-world.html?hp

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — IN 2003, my wife and I spent a week on an island off the coast of Maine. One day I rented a recreational kayak from the woman who runs the local post office. She did not, however, have any maps or compasses.

Foolishly, I set off without them, paddling across a two-mile-wide bay with the life jacket tucked under the seat, wearing only a cotton T-shirt and shorts. I was about halfway across when a thick fog rolled in. I couldn’t see the shore......