How did you know you were off course?
The crew tries to sail from place to place inonly one tack (tack means following a zig zag course). Otherwise youcan get really off course.
There are two zenith stars that are used inHawaiian navigation. The zenith stars are the stars directly overHawaii and Tahiti. Hawaii's zenith star is Hokulea or Arcturus.Tahiti's zenith star is Sirius. These stars helped the
In the Marshall islands, stick charts were usedto help navigators remember how to get where they came from. Thereare two kinds of stick charts. One of the two types is just like amap. Coral pieces were tied to sticks to show islands and possiblecourse navigation between them. The second chart is an instructionalchart. It showed wave patterns. Any wave pattern could be pointed outsomewhere on the stick chart.
Hawaiians knew when land was near when cloudsahead a haze of green or blue on the bottom. A green haze could meanit's an islands vegetation and blue could mean an islandslagoon.
