The Barefoot Navigator

Book excerpt: The Barefoot Navigator is an unusual and fascinating exploration of the skills of navigation employed by the ancients and transferrable to the present day. The first half of the book investigates the navigation capabilities of seafarers long before modern navigation instruments or charts became available. For example, how did the Polynesians manage to populate an area of ocean larger than North America simply by analysing clouds, currents, wind direction, sun, stars and the flight patterns of ocean birds? And how did the Vikings routinely travel between Iceland, Greenland and Scandinavia - huge tracts of treacherous water? The second part of the book analyses how the techniques of the ancients can be employed by 21st century seafarers to supplement today's navigational hardware - especially in survival situations. This is a unique analysis of practical technology-free navigation, whose techniques can easily be employed by modern navigators to supplement their personal navigation skills in order to just 'know' where they are. It will fascinate navigators and landlubbers alike.