One of the primary challenges for deck cadets on the training cruise each year is to put into practice the navigational skills that they all learn in class from books and written computational exercises. The skill of navigating at sea using a sextant is part "art-form" and can be challenging. Even for those students who may easily grasp the mathematics of sight reduction into an actual position on a chart. Standing on the deck of a vessel at sea that is rolling, heaving, and pitching in a seaway and using a sextant to 'bring a star down to the horizon' as seen through a scope, requires patience. It doesn't matter how well you can calculate the numbers if your sight is off from simply doing a bad job of it. I'm sure most all deck graduates will tell you that one skill that is learned at Cal Maritime is how to "shoot stars" and do it well, repeatedly. This component of going on the training cruise can be very challenging for the deck cadet's curriculum. But the navigational skills obtained last a professional lifetime.
1st Class Cadet Gyle McGurn seen here in the Navigation Lab calculating star time for sights later that night. McGurn is a Lyman Scholarship recipient. Gyle McGurn, a resident of Maui, is seated on far left.