Love the story Frank. Nice to know there are people still able to navigate by the stars.
One minor point, Rigel Kent, also known as Alpha Centauri, along with Beta Centauri (Hadar) are actually in Centaurus, not Crux (the Southern Cross). Sorry to be pedantic!
Splitting Alpha Cent was one of the first things I did with a scope and it was a magic feeling to see 2 blazing suns.
Malcolm