It’s an interesting subject. Hutchins’ describes the process the Navy uses to maintain a nav plot in his book, the analog-digital-analog metaphor that I posted about here:
The first time I sailed in Alaska was on a CG Cutter, right after I got out of the Navy’s QM “A” school.
The next time in Alaska was the first time as mate on an Aleutian freighter. The captain (Doug) was an ex-fisherman, He only used visual information, either off the radar or out the window.
Took me a while to adjust, didn’t have the tools I was accustomed to using (had charts, only a heads-up radar with fixed range rings, had a gyro so could orient the ship’s heading to the chart ). It wasn’t until after the gyro compass stopped functioning properly that I learned to navigate the same as Captain Doug was doing it, not only without a plot but also no way to orient for direction to use the chart, only visual and radar.
A few years later I did get federal pilotage for some SE Alaska ports and the routes between them.