If you want to know where you are going, you must first remember where you came from. This is the basic tenet of the wayfarer. The only tool the traditional navigator needs is the star compass, the basic mental construct for navigation.
Nainoa Thompson
Master navigator
Two thousand years ago, about the time of Christ, there was a voyaging canoe. It belonged to the greatest navigators on Earth, the citizens of the largest oceanic country that ever existed.
It was a terrible time, and even though Hawaiian people did not disappear, they also were not doing so well. They became the lowest rung in society in their homeland.
As the sun falls below the horizon on our last night on the canoe, Nainoa — now in his sixties but still agile as a teenager — skips to the bow of the canoe to look at the incoming waves and memorize the currents.
The journey will be a long one, but Nainoa reminds us that the wayfarer knows that patience and determination are vital qualities during a long crossing.