I suppose that the official beginning of this project could be assigned to Wednesday, November 12, 2008, late afternoon Pacific Standard Time.  On that day my wife and I were visiting the town of Dana Point on the California coast, where she grew up.  She showed me her childhood home, her high school, cool places to hang out.  In the evening we drove down to the harbor.  As we were walking on the beach, we encountered two fellows, one equipped with a sextant, who were observing the sunset. "Right on the money," one of them said.  He was certainly correct to make that observation, at least as far as I was concerned.  You see, I had been under standing orders from my better half to choose a Christmas present for myself.  For weeks now I had been totally clueless on this subject, but now, thanks to those two guys on the beach, my conundrum was immediately resolved.  And thus at Christmas I found myself a proud owner of a new Davis Mark 15 sextant, some study materials and plotting utensils, and an artificial horizon.  Since I already had a radio-controlled clock that could serve as my "chronometer" I was ready to start learning and practicing the principles and procedures of celestial navigation.  (to be continued…)