NavList:

Ed Popko, you wrote: "Along the theme of your comments, I have seen a number of references to Te Lapa - "The Flashing'. And frankly, I can not tell if this is speculation that had been repeated so many times that it is believed as fact or what."

Ah, yes. The underwater lightning. Maybe you will find something useful in John Huth's posts from thirteen years ago. Here's one:
http://fer3.com/arc/m2.aspx/Polynesian-navigation-JohnH-jun-2009-g8586,
mostly quoting me, but you should be able to find others in that thread and elsewhere. John H became quite curious about bioluminescence, and if I remember correctly, he set up some aquarium tanks in his basement to experiment. He also did some field research in the Pacific on the topic. 

Keep in mind that there has been a tendency by some authors to treat the Pacific Ocean, sub-consciously at least, as a pond with uniform properties that apply from shore to shore. For example, it is quite common, even normal, to treat the navigation practices of mid-20th century traditional navigators in the Marshall Islands as models for Polynesian navigation, often ignoring the fact that the Marshall Islands are outside the Polynesian culture area and the fact that the relatively dense archipelago of the Marshalls is a unique navigational environment (though with some lessons for the similarly dense Tuamotus, east of Tahiti). Different tricks work in different places.

Frank Reed