In times of bad weather it was still often possible to get a "noon sight" measuring when the sun reached its azmuth (highest point). With an accurate timepiece and knowing which hemisphere your in you can get a reasonable fix on your location.
Also dead recokoning was used, even while submerged.
Good navagators also had exteranious info such as the expeced currents, wind drift etc.
If they went for a few days with no noon sight, no star shots, yup they could be wayyyy off course.
Fourtunatly the weather being so bad you cant see the sun for three or four days in a row is pretty rare.
I suppose it could be "simulated" in the game somehow but not in its current state. You see the world of SH4 is flat. All celestial navigation is based on taking sights from a curved surface (the earth).
The sky of course is not curved however it is commonly refered to as "the celistial sphere" as it certainly appears to be a sphere.
Its amazing really that the art of celistial navigation dates back to Columbuses time. In fact their biggest obstical was an accurate time piece. The timepieces of the time relied on kinetic motion (springs, gears, and counterweights) and things like the motion of the ship and bumping the timepiece taking it in and out of its "box" etc would effect their accuracy. Even pocket watches suffered from this. Not to mention some of their tables (star logs, time logs) were at best dubious.
Using a sextant is a pretty heady subject and I dabbled in it when I used to race in offshore sailboats. Just in case the gps crapped out (which they often did) back then. Ill have to admit Ive forgotten more than I ever knew and would be hard pressed to use one now.
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