Being on the vast Southern Atlantic Ocean, the navigating officers primarily use the Global Positioning System, GPS for their position fixes. This is due to the fact that there are no fixed landmarks visible to take bearings from. Maybe you have noticed in magazines or from fellow passengers that very accurate GPS units, of only the size of a handheld telephone are available nowadays. The GPS devices in use today are accurate up to 65 feet (20 meters). If the GPS should fail, celestial navigation is the only backup. Therefore, all the navigating officers are skilled in using the sextant to obtain a position, like they did in the “old days”.
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