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Tahiti to Tauranga by the Stars


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https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/398785/canoe-sails-from-tahiti-to-tauranga-guided-by-stars

 

Traditional double hulled sailing canoe's do Tahiti to Tauranga in 3 weeks, without any CAT 1 gear...

I love this stuff, navigating by the stars, sun, moon, and other signs like wave patterns etc.

 

And something I didn't know, Cook had a polynesian navigator from Tahiti that did all the nav in finding NZ in the first place. Whowaddathunk.

 

It fascinates me how, if you get rid of all the modern tech and BS, you can slowly tune yourself back into nature.

A while ago I worked in an industry where we couldn't wear jewelry or watches (and no phones on your person either), I could estimate the time easily to within 20 mins or so not a problem. Now, I have to look at my phone. And instead of looking out the window to see what the weather is like, I have to check the web - drives the missus nuts, I'm checking the rain radar and she's pointing to the dark clouds on the horizon...

 

Slow down, disconnect and tune in to nature.

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Ever followed the story of Rimas on sailing anarchy. An old Russian that gets old boats from benefactors. He knows nothing of sailing, he ties the sails in knots, doesn’t steer, just drifts along. When he gets close to an island he radios for a tow in.

 

His last adventure saw him towed out of Hawaii. He drifted south, threaded the Kiribati islands, America Samoa. They ignored his taxi calls because he ripped them off previously. He carried on drifting across the South Pacific, missed the reefs between the main islands of Fiji by inches, ended up rescued in Saipan, but carrried in and finally totalled his boat off China and was rescued by Vietnamese fishermen. He’s now back in the USA trying to get another boat.

 

Master navigator? Or proving that a clockwise circumnavigation of the Pacific requires no more intelligence than a cork might have?

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Ever followed the story of Rimas on sailing anarchy. An old Russian that gets old boats from benefactors. He knows nothing of sailing, he ties the sails in knots, doesn’t steer, just drifts along. When he gets close to an island he radios for a tow in.

 

His last adventure saw him towed out of Hawaii. He drifted south, threaded the Kiribati islands, America Samoa. They ignored his taxi calls because he ripped them off previously. He carried on drifting across the South Pacific, missed the reefs between the main islands of Fiji by inches, ended up rescued in Saipan, but carrried in and finally totalled his boat off China and was rescued by Vietnamese fishermen. He’s now back in the USA trying to get another boat.

 

Master navigator? Or proving that a clockwise circumnavigation of the Pacific requires no more intelligence than a cork might have?

Crikey ,Puff are you seriously comparing Tupaia with Rimas.

Fark you urgently need to enrol in the newly announced compulsory History of Nz which is now freely available at your local school.

Better still read the journals of Cook and take note that Tupaia held a very accurate knowledge of what islands lay far to the west of Hawaii which Cook ignored.

The Polynesian navigators successfully journeyed to and returned from destinations across the Pacific and that has never been achieved by a loony Russian nor a cork.

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We've just come from Fulaga, an island renowned for its canoe building, so I'm back on a learning curve about their drua. These things were sometimes over 100 ft long and could carry 250 people between Tonga and Fiji and other islands.

Interesting boats. Double hull but one hull smaller than the other. They sail both ways like a proa but have different bow and stern shapes. I suspect they configured them for a trade wind journey but could shunt tack to finish or navigate in. The explanation I've been given for the dissimilar hulls is they were more manouvrable than the Tongan catamaran style they replaced. There's one in the Suva museum, it's a 1913 Fulaga build. Pretty impressive.

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I Do but I've forgotten how to do photos and it's probably a bit awkward,Priscilla.....on cell sitting in the rain and wind at Beqa island. Its horrible.

That photo is of a Tongan catamaran i think. That design was eclipsed by the Fijian drua, which has more of a proa look. Two websites including the Fijian museum site quote the drua as having identical bow and stern shapes.which is wrong. The main hull has close to a plumb bow in the museum boat and all the contemporary art....and for want of a better term, a counter stern profile. And yet they sail both ways. I'm yet to understand why and no Fijian has been able to tell me why.

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