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A more up-to date discussion of the methods of Micronesian navigation
can be found in a recent book (1987) by Steve Thomas.  Thomas sailed
with one of the few remaining practitioner's of the ancient methods.
Thomas comes with notable sailing credentials and his account provides
some useful insights.

Dick

Michael Daly wrote:
> Clive wrote:
>
>> How do you find its direction and how do you deduce that its direction is
>> unexpected and therefore of navigable interest ?
>
> Very good point and I'm guilty of not thinking critically about this
> info.  Most of my experience with currents is in inland waters where
> they can be quite visible (like a line of bubbles between two slightly
> different coloured areas of water) as in two big rivers meeting or a
> river flowing into a large lake.
>
> On the ocean, you'd be swept along with it and, out of sight of land as
> you say, there's no point of reference.  I suppose the only means of
> detecting the current is if it regularly swept along flotsam (of the
> natural kind) and it could be identified from a distance as one
> approached.  Knowing nothing of Pacific currents, I can't say there's
> any location where this wild hypothesis is possible.
>
>> It is conceivable the pacific islanders navigated over long distances,
>> although I remain unconvinced that they did so with any prepared passage
>> plan, but principally I argue that it would be impossible to navigate using
>> this method.
>
> If they ran regular trade routes, I can see it possible to do the
> planning.  However, your contention that using currents is not feasible
> is valid until I or someone can identify a legitimate way to do it.
>
> Mike
>
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