My experience
Fortunately, I have had great success navigating my way to different locations both on the West coast and the East coast in my Catalina 36'. The boat is equipped with very little equipment. I have a Loran visable from the port side of the cockpit, depth sounder and knot meter. Recently I picked up a hand held GPS which is absolutely amazing. Having spent more then 25 years in the navy and having served as navigator on several ships which included a passage from Portsmouth/Kittery Maine to and through the Panama Canal towing a submarine and back again to Norfolk, Va. I can assure you, the basics are the best. We only had Loran as our primary electronic navigational aid. With dead reconing, celestial, and calling our escort ship for a fix now and then we never got lost. Keep it simple in the cockpit and have a good sail plan for where you are going. Know the navigational aids along the way and key bouys and channel markers. Know the flashing sequences of light houses and bouys know the bells and gongs. Keep your eyes and hands attentative to sailing and not focused on a fancy gps electronic chart or some lap top that you can't really follow anyway. The other sailors and yes even those pesky power boaters will appreciate you keeping your eyes on the road.
