... all thru the 90s doing the Marion-Bermuda race every other year. Over the entire decade it maintained a very steady rate of change. It gained .4 seconds every 10 days or something like that. The important thing was, it was a consistent rate of change. When the race came up every 2 years I didn't even bother to re-set the time, I just knew that the "watch error" was now 29 seconds faster (or whatever) than it had been. Of course I double-checked it with time ticks, but all that did was confirm that my rate-of-change calculation was correct.

As you probably know a calculator makes the sight reduction process easier, mostly because you can use your true "Assumed Position" rather than a 'forced one' to get to a whole degree of LHA and Latitude as required when using tables. Using your true AP makes plotting the sights a lot easier. Also, before the race started I pre-computed the LHA of Aries for the entire race for morning and evening star sights, estimating where we'd be, and used HO249 to know what stars to look for. I'd set the sextant to the angle specified by H0249, point it in the direction specified by H0249, and usually there'd be a bright star sitting near the horizon to use for your sight. Made it a whole lot easier versus identifying the star in the sky and walking the sextant down to the horizon, especially with dim stars or fuzzy horizons. You also often don't have much time to take a round of star sights. When you get 5 or so LOP crosses in a narrow space you can bet your life that is where you are.

Good luck with it.

Max