NavList:

I was interested in the Polynesian Navigator's description of how he uses the stars as a compass.  He described 32 houses for the stars and how he set the direction of his vessel by them.  It ignores how seasonal changes will alter the azimuth of the star, but that could be explained away by proclaiming the navigator memorized this variation (he did not so state and Tyson didn't pick up on it.) 

360°/32 houses =11.25°/house.  This implies a steering error of ~5.625°.  As I understand it, the direction of travel was from the Tahitian Islands to the Hawaiian Islands.  This is theorized in anthropological studies and I cannot be certain this is true.  The change in latitude is ~36° from Tahiti to Hawaii.  This will change the relationship of the star / house compass in a very gradual way, resulting in a curved path if the star house compass was used as described.   How they would precisely hold any course over long distances is difficult to understand. 

So after sailing 2400 miles, with

1) a 36° change in latitude subtly altering your house/star compass relationship

2) a seasonal variation of the star house relationship and

3) a ~5.625° steering error 

you would be off by a few hundred miles at destination. 

It is a darned good thing that the Hawaiian Island chain is 1600 miles long! This is not a miraculous navigational feat.  Kind of like sailing west and running into a continent (Columbus / Vikings / Egyptian Mummies with cocaine in their system/etc).