We always knew that!..................
Stars would show them their position, but it would not tell them about islands.
Birds would tell them that an island was accessible, since they don’t go far from land. It’s also possible that the ocean was lower as well, allowing less distances to travel land masses.
I also think it was a bit of a crapshoot and not everybody survived their attempt at finding new islands. Anybody on islands are descendants of the lucky ones.
We always knew that!..................
Eventually you will find the warmer current ....
I’ve been to Bora Bora and Huahini. The native Polynesians were wonderfully smart, funny and honest and the males looked better than the women. Fine with me as I was a young woman then. Great dancers, too. Taught me how to do
a dance called “Tamure”.
I was on assignment for a travel magazine and somehow left my valuable camera there. Got a call a few days after I got back home from a stewardess on airline that flew me there. She had my camera, which a Polynesian had found and given to her.
I a sailboat sailor.
I live in Hawaii.
This mythology of their
fantastic exploits are
pure BS.
There is only one star
that does not appear to move
in the Northern hemisphere.
Even the Southern cross “moves”.
Navigating by stars without a set reference
doesn’t work. Micronesians weren’t that abled.
They followed birds,
pure and simple.
It is all tribal oral BS.
to extort money from us.
Full disclosure I was a specialist in navigation
in the military.
My own theory is that there were more islands between Samoa and Hawaii in the 1,000 AD - 1,200 AD period than there are today.
Today, the last large island between Samoa and Hawaii is about 1,000 miles away from Hawaii.
Traveling northeast to Hawaii may have involved favorable currents. But, how do you get back and tell people about Hawaii unless you sail or paddle back?
Sailing would involve tools and materials that were not readily available on unpopulated islands.
Paddling would involve huge requirements for fresh water, protein, and energy food.
But, when you get to 1,000 miles of open ocean, those areas are usually vast fish deserts, and there is no fresh water unless it rains.
The Hawaiian archipelago is more than 300 miles across, so it was probably quite rare that someone would sail or paddle right by the islands.
But, I am still skeptical that they could go straight to Hawaii without charts and calendars, or if they had clouds, rain, or rough water.
Several years ago, I recall reading that there are no "fossil" examples of Pacific island boats from a thousand years ago.
Anyone know if that is still true?
Not just the stars. They made stick-and-bead charts based on wave patterns that they were able to use when out of sight of land.
Stars maybe but what they did know was currents which are visible on the open ocean if you know how to look,
How Sticks and Shell Charts Became a Sophisticated System ... https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/how-sticks-and-shell-charts-became-sophisticated-system-navigation-180954018/
actually old news in the sense that the Jomon of Japan were navigating the Black Current in 14,000 BC.
Seafaring birds.
A book I read (actually it was in audiobook format) goes into significant detail and claims that DNA shows the Polynesians originated in Taiwan.
Maybe the Taiwanese and Polynesians both originated in the same place?
Can’t remember how the aboriginal Australians fit in to that arrangement.
They were one serious badazz seafaring society.
What was the minimum cohort for such a journey, and how did they maintain fresh water?