The sextant was the main tool of the navigator.
Cook made astonishingly accurate maps as a result.

Foxy,
True, but he didn’t follow the compass.
In all the time that I’ve spent at the wheel or the tiller I steered by the compass.

Back to the topic.

For a country that believes in egalitarianism,
democracy, merit before background, status, and
class we need to stop keeping the issue of republicanism
on the back burner.

Many may think that it's inevitable that we shall
eventually become a republic. Unfortunately inevitability
leads to inaction. This lack of passion may also have
something to do with the fact that the question of
republicanism has historically been framed
as something external to us - a question of what we DON'T
want to be and that's not a particularly inspiring
message.

The republic issue has to mean more than just severance.
It needs to be a bigger question about our relationship
\with the country, the land, one another, and of course
the position of our Indigenous Australians. Plus making
our Constitution a document that serves us all in the
21st century.

I’d still like to know how the average Australian is going to be better off by the country becoming a Republic.
Will mortgage rates drop?
Will the cost of living stabilise or go down?
Will petrol prices go down?
Will the renting citizens be better off?
Will the ABC be made to stick to its charter?

And do’t give me the airy-fairy Australia will have a native born head of state, who cares as long as the job is done.
Australia is a Commonwealth of Soverign States what if a State doesn’t want to be in a Republic, will they be allowed to opt out?
Or will the Army be called out to compel them?

.

Dear Foxy and Is Mise,

.

I must confess that I have never done any navigation. As a matter of fact, I got lost for three days and three nights with two of my mates many years ago when we were working as pick and shovel boys on the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric scheme.

We admired the sun each day and the stars each night but didn’t have a clue where we were or in which direction we should go, which mountain we should climb or descend. Happily, we saw car lights on a distant mountain on the third night and managed to climb up to the road the next day. Nobody in the work camp had missed us. Labourers often left the camp without notice. Easy come, easy go.

Nevertheless, I recently stumbled across an old archive article from the British National Maritime Museum on the sextant used by Captain James Cook on his third Pacific voyage. This is what it says :

« As a child James Cook was educated and could read and write. As an adult Cook joined the Royal Navy and was soon recognised as an excellent map maker and navigator. Using sextants and chronometer, Cook made astonishingly accurate maps of the Pacific and the east coast of Australia.

« The sextant was the main tool of the navigator. Developed from the more limited octant in the 1760s, the sextant could be used either to find the height of the Sun above the horizon to determine a ship’s latitude, or measure angles between the Moon and fixed stars … » :

Here is the article :

http://www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/uncategorized/about/index.html
.

By the way, Is Mise, please correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t compasses only “point” in one direction : north ? If the sun rises in the east and settles in the west, why do we need a compass to know where the north is ? Is it just for night time sailing or on cloudy days ?

Sorry to bother you with my silly questions, but apparently you are a navigator.

.

It seems that the Bin Chicken won't be going for federal politics this year because she at least is aware of the trouble she is in - unlike our value-free PM, and equally gormless two ex-PMs.