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Dr David Lewis gave details of traditional navigation
in the Pacific in several books   - "We, the
Navigators" being the most focussed on this. There are
also several books on "emergency navigation" which are
interesting (the stand-out being the one by David
Burch). From memory, there was a pull-out appendix to
one edition of "Survive the Savage Sea" which had quite
of lot of info, too.

As to practical sailing experience, once into ocean
swells you can steer minute-by-minute by swell, but
over a day you need sun or stars as well. Lewis says
that the Pacific navigators found that the best way to
sense swells is to stand up and let the swing of your
testes tell you...though that could just be a
cock-and-bull story.

Keith Williams

   

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