Master Celestial Navigation Aboard Wind Song: A 2-Day Sextant Workshop in New Bern

On the mornings and evenings of an April-to-October weekend, Wind Song slips from its berth at North West Creek Marina and becomes a classroom for the sky. The Celestial Navagation Weekend Workshop (2-Day course) runs aboard Wind Song at E dock Slip 38 in New Bern, North Carolina, and teaches the vanished art of finding your position by sun, moon, planets, and stars. Over two compact days - three hours each morning - instructors move students from theory into practice. You’ll learn sextant basics, index error, dip and refraction; take a noon sight and reduce it with the Nautical Almanac; plot lines of position and watch them cross on a chart. Class size is deliberately small (3–6 people), so everyone gets the sextant in hand and the instructor’s attention. All instruments and sight reduction materials are included, and light snacks and coffee keep the focus sharp between shots. The unique appeal here is tactile and elemental: instead of staring at a screen, you swing the sextant, line up the sun or a star, and make a measurement that ties a patch of sky to a point on paper. Weather-dependent night sights - the workshop’s graduation fix under the stars - are the kind of moment students call 'pure magic.' The boat’s gentle motion on the marsh-fed creek and the open horizon outside the marina add a real-world seamanship element you won’t get in a classroom. Practicalities are simple but specific: arrive at the dock by 10:15 a.m., find Wind Song at the end of E dock Slip 38, and bring layered clothing - mornings on the water can be cool. No prior experience is required; the course walks you from identification to reduction to plotting, and leaves you with a certificate and the confidence to navigate without GPS. This workshop is more than a skill-builder; it’s a bridge to maritime tradition. In an era when fewer than one percent of mariners practice celestial navigation, this program preserves a hard-won craft and places it back into hands-on use. For sailors, backcountry navigators, and anyone who wants to read the sky, the Celestial Navagation Weekend is a concentrated, practical immersion that makes ancient tools relevant again. Wind Song Sailing Adventures runs the course according to sea and weather; the captain may alter plans for safety. Expect clear instruction, personal time at the sextant, and the rare satisfaction of letting the sky tell you where you are. Bookings are limited; the workshop fills fast, and the small-group format means each student completes dozens of sights and leaves confident to shoot, reduce, and plot without electronic aids—skills that travel with you from marina dock to open ocean and add resilience to any cruising plan. Book early online.