In centuries past, seafarers navigated by all sorts of means, from observing seabird behaviour to reading the sky at night, discovers William Thomson, as he seeks to revive these timeless methods
The sun rose to illuminate an ocean devoid of land. In all directions there was nothing but water – for 10 miles around and three miles down I was surrounded by dark blue sea, glistening with gold in the early morning sun. But I was not worried about being lost, because flying directly towards our boat was a set of two white terns, their angelic wings translucent in the sunlight and the big black patches around their eyes standing bold against snow-white feathers. Just seeing them told me two vital pieces of information. Firstly, we were heading towards land. Secondly, it was less than 20 nautical miles (nm) away. I knew this because terns sleep on shore and at dawn they fly up to 20nm offshore to fish, before returning to land again at dusk. This simple piece of knowledge has aided navigators for thousands of years and it gave me peace of mind that our chart-plotter was still working and the Russians hadn’t scrambled our GPS.
My co-ordinates were 16 degrees south, 150 degrees west, just over the horizon from the island of Tahiti in the South Pacific. What on earth was I doing there? I was on a mission, a quest, a search for knowledge. My task was to study how traditional Polynesian navigation techniques could aid British sailors in modern boats equipped with high-tech systems. Before English missionaries arrived in Polynesia around the late 18th century and banned voyaging, these seafarers were undoubtedly the world’s greatest navigators, capable of finding tiny islands scattered across hundreds of miles of ocean – the equivalent of a needle in a haystack. I have long been fascinated in these skills, so when the opportunity arose to collaborate with the Royal Cruising Club Pilotage Foundation on the project, I embraced it. My strategy was to go in as many boats as possible, meeting local navigators and taking copious notes of what I learnt. The brief was that the techniques should be simple to understand, quick and easy to master, and be usable with no tools or equipment.
READING THE STARS
While many people think you can only navigate in daylight, night is a navigator’s ally with stars creating a vast natural compass in the sky. While there are many useful stars only visible in the Southern Hemisphere, the greatest one in the night sky is clearly visible from Britain, Polaris. This wonderful burning ball of fire is great not because of its dazzle (it’s only the 52nd brightest), but because of its geographical position, hovering directly above th
