1970 on the water. 1984 out of sight of land.
Marin and others have said it well. But I'll throw my opinions in also
I like having the skills and experience to navigate without electronics. I love how precise and easy navigation has become with electronics.
Some basic aspects of navigation have not changed with electronics. Make a plan, stay ahead of the vessel and be observant.
Make a plan:
Unless operating on familiar waters and good visibility do your course work ahead of time. This can be anything from creating a route on your chart plotter to drawing a course on a paper chart. In new and or challenging areas I like lots of pre - plotted decisions made well ahead of time. Course, distance, distance off and bearing of dangers. ETA at major points, tides and currents.
Stay ahead of the vessel:
This is old skool but I think it should also be practiced with electronics. When we navigated exclusively on paper charts we were working ahead of our position. As we passed over point A and took a fix we were confirming we knew where we were. Point B was already in our 'sights'. If you dig up old accident investigations you will often find the cause was navigational error and that often "failure to stay ahead of the vessel" was cited. Avoid being surprised, know what's coming, deal with it before it becomes critical.
Be observant:
Use everything. GPS, radar and look out your windows. Are they all telling you the same story? Each will lie to you in a different way.
I'm confident I can get back home with nothing more than a compass, watch or clock, paper chart, dividers, rule and decent visibility. But.... I won't leave the dock without radar, GPS and depth finder functioning.
We all know the strengths of electronics. We often do not think of the weakness. Besides potential failure the biggest weakness is a chart plotter encourages us to just look at where we are and no more. We all, I'm guilty of it also, tend to use the GPS plotter like we use our car GPS. Keep the dot on the line.
If you enjoy learning and sharpening your nautical skills add paper chart navigation to your routine. You will be surprised how quickly you pick it up. And you may someday be glad you did.