I got my first "real" boat in '80 when in my 20s. It was a Shark 24, which was a step up from my first boat, a West White Potter 15. The Shark was my first experience in night navigation and in fog, and both together! Scared the crap out of me. No radar, before-GPS; my only instruments were speed log, a compass and hand bearing compass. I got caught out unexpectedly on a moonless night in the fog in the area of City Island and New Rochelle New York. Anyone familiar with that area knows that there are miles of granite reefs strewn about like mine fields. I navigated from buoy to buoy using ded-reckoning and my ears. Made it to my home port in Echo Bay, New Rochelle without mishap. (Check the charts and you'll see that was an accomplishment in zero-vis without GPS or radar). After that I adopted a motto that "I don't always need to know where I am, but I need to know where I'm not".