What happens when the GPS goes dark—but the coastline is still ahead?

A Sailor’s Handbook to Navigating Unfamiliar Coastlines Without GPS is a practical guide to the traditional navigation skills that every coastal sailor should understand before electronics become unavailable, unreliable, or simply stop making sense.

Beginning with the last reliable fix, the book guides sailors through reading nautical charts, working with true and magnetic bearings, accounting for variation and deviation, plotting courses, measuring distance, maintaining a dead-reckoning position, taking visual bearings to fixed landmarks, and using multiple lines of position to establish a practical fix.

Clear explanations are supported by detailed nautical illustrations, practical examples, checklists, worksheets, quick-reference material, and progressively more advanced exercises. Readers can practice converting magnetic and true directions, plotting dead-reckoning positions, working with three-bearing fixes, evaluating position uncertainty, and determining whether adequate clearance exists between the vessel and nearby hazards.

This is not a book about rejecting modern navigation technology. It is about ensuring that technology remains a tool rather than a dependency.