Newburyport Public Library

The barefoot navigator, wayfinding with the skills of the ancients, Jack Lagan ; illustrated by Dave Saunders

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

illustrationsmaps

index present

non fiction

The barefoot navigator

bibliography

967094480

Jack Lagan ; illustrated by Dave Saunders

wayfinding with the skills of the ancients

"The Barefoot Navigator introduces the navigation skills of the ancients--methods using the sun, sea, wind, and stars, and even the flight patterns of ocean birds. The Barefoot Navigator also shows today's sailors how to apply these methods to augment--and in the case of emergency, replace-their modern navigation systems. And it not just for emergencies--sometimes it is just plain fun to create a simple astrolabe or polar stick and confirm what your GPS tells you. Polynesians managed to populate an area of ocean larger than North America simply by analyzing clouds, currents, and wind direction--how did they do it? In the first portion of The Barefoot Navigator Lagan introduces these ancient seafarers and their powerful, accurate--and seemingly simple--navigation techniques. We also learn that the Vikings routinely traveled on the notorious stretches of water between Iceland, Greenland, and Scandinavia--no charts, no GPS; it seems mind-boggling but Lagan shows us how. The second section of The Barefoot Navigator teaches how to combine these ancient techniques--and even construct the simple devices if we desire-with today's modern navigational devices, especially in emergency situations (loss of power, loss of signal), to ensure a constant grasp on your vessel's location--no matter what. Interlacing fascinating history with useful advice and enjoyable writing, The Barefoot Navigator is unlike every other navigation reference out there."--Publisher's description

Foreword to the new edition -- A short lexicon -- A barefoot philosophy for the 21st century (GPS: the death of navigation? ; A strategy for the future)Part one: The remarkable skills of the ancients (The Pacific Islanders [Just another day in Paradise? ; Tangata: the gods of navigation ; Feelers of the sea ; The chart in Cptain William Bligh's head ; Tupaia's chart ; Strategies and tactics] ; The Vikings [The ring of bears ; The Norse sagas as cruising guides ; The polar stick ; Sol-Skuggjáfjøl: the Sun-shadow board ; The Uunartoq compass ; The Viking Sunstone] ; The Mediterranean: Pharaohs, Phoenicians and Greeks [Queen Hatsheput's shopping trip ; The thalassocrcay of Phoenicia ; King Necho II's big adventure ; Lateen rigs and wind compasses] ; The Arabs [Ships of the desert at sea ; The rahmāni, the kamal and the akhdh al-Kawakib] ; The Chinese [Sampans and junk history ; Longitude Chinese style ; The south-pointing needle] ; Renaissance navigation [Portolan charts and some very rum lines ; Dividing circles: the search for accuracy])Part two: Practical no-tech navigation (Which heading? [Horizon events ; The trade winds ; The movement of the sea ; Catch a rising star: barefoot auto-navigation ; 360 degrees of separation: introducing the pelorus ; The sidereal compass] ; Where am I, rouighly? ; Landfall)Part three: Do-it-yourself lo-tech navigation (Dead reckoning [Improvising a magnetic compass ; The watch compass ; Calculating speed: the home brew log line ; Calculating speed: the Dutchman's log] ; The traverse board: logging your dead reckoning ; The pelorus: non-magnetic steering compasses ; Steering: the Sun compass ; Steering: the star compass ; Steering: the superlorus ; Latitude [Kamals and polar sticks ; The astrolabe, the cross-staff and the backstaff ; Improvising quadrants ; Latitude using the Sun at noon ; Latitude using the stars ; Making a Sun-shadow board] ; Longitude [The ubiquitous quartz watch ; Using the Sun at noon ; Using a compass ; Longituide by polar stick ; A minimalist longitude using Kochab ; A combined declimation /EoT table] ; Latitude longitude and lunar distances ; Plumbing the depths])Part four: Survival navigation (Be prepared ; The grab bag ; Stranded ashore?) -- Timeline of navigation and exploration -- Appendices (1: Quadrant scale ; 2: The barefoot navigator's survival kit ; 3: Mean declination of the Sun, 2016-2019 ; 4: Declination of Sun (small version) ; 5: Schematic for Sun-shadow board ; 6: Gnomon settings for the Sun-shadow board ; 7: Graph for the equation of time ; 8: Table for the equation of time (EoT) ; 9: The Beaufort scale ; 10: Global emegency locator ; 11: Standard time zones ; 12: World ocean currents ; 13: Combined table for declination and equation of time, 2016-2019)