Tiddy Oggy
Active Member
I am wondering if anyone here has ever tried ancient Polynesian navigation. I refer in particular to their alleged practice of locating an island as yet unseen over the horizon. They apparently did this by sensing the presence of smaller swells that were created by the dominant ocean swells being reflected back off the land in the direction of the observer.
Have any of you ever felt those reflected swells? A few years ago I was approaching remote Ascension Island in the South Atlantic in my 30-foot sloop. The island was still out of sight when my son and I took the opportunity of trying to see or “feel” the reflected waves. After an hour or two we had identified two sets of swells, one well established from the south-east trade winds, and another, weaker and smaller, from the southwest, presumably some left-over from the Roaring Forties. But neither of us could find a trace of anything coming from Ascension. When we failed to see any trace of them, we tried to “feel” for such swells through the seat of our pants by sitting in the cockpit, and we “felt” for strange “knocks”, or “hesitations” in forward progress, by standing up.
In short we tried every trick we knew but we couldn’t sense the return swells that the old Polynesian pilots could detect.
Then, just the other day, I was reading Beyond the Blue Horizon by Dr. Brian Fagan, emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is an expatriate Briton and a seasoned small-boat sailor. On page 60 he said this:
“The pilot watches the fading stars, feet apart, balancing easily against the pitch and roll of the fast-moving canoe . . . the weathered navigator leans over, eyes shut, feeling the movement of the waves through his swinging testicles. After everal minutes, he straightens up, looks again at the water, and then points to a course slightly more downwind.”
Now I have to admit that neither my son nor I even considered dropping our drawers and letting our wedding tackle swing free. Has anyone tried it with success?
Have any of you ever felt those reflected swells? A few years ago I was approaching remote Ascension Island in the South Atlantic in my 30-foot sloop. The island was still out of sight when my son and I took the opportunity of trying to see or “feel” the reflected waves. After an hour or two we had identified two sets of swells, one well established from the south-east trade winds, and another, weaker and smaller, from the southwest, presumably some left-over from the Roaring Forties. But neither of us could find a trace of anything coming from Ascension. When we failed to see any trace of them, we tried to “feel” for such swells through the seat of our pants by sitting in the cockpit, and we “felt” for strange “knocks”, or “hesitations” in forward progress, by standing up.
In short we tried every trick we knew but we couldn’t sense the return swells that the old Polynesian pilots could detect.
Then, just the other day, I was reading Beyond the Blue Horizon by Dr. Brian Fagan, emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is an expatriate Briton and a seasoned small-boat sailor. On page 60 he said this:
“The pilot watches the fading stars, feet apart, balancing easily against the pitch and roll of the fast-moving canoe . . . the weathered navigator leans over, eyes shut, feeling the movement of the waves through his swinging testicles. After everal minutes, he straightens up, looks again at the water, and then points to a course slightly more downwind.”
Now I have to admit that neither my son nor I even considered dropping our drawers and letting our wedding tackle swing free. Has anyone tried it with success?
