Centuries before GPS satellites, magnetic compasses and detailed nautical charts transformed sea travel, Polynesian navigators were already mastering one of the world's greatest navigational challenges: the immense Pacific Ocean. In double-hulled canoes, they sailed thousands of kilometres between tiny, isolated islands spread across waters covering almost one-third of Earth's surface. Astonishingly, they achieved these voyages without any modern instruments. Instead, they depended on an intricate knowledge of the stars, ocean swells, prevailing winds, cloud formations, seabirds and an exceptional oral tradition passed from one generation to the next. What seems almost unimaginable today was, for centuries, a highly sophisticated navigation system that enabled Polynesian explorers to discover and settle nearly every habitable island across the central and southern Pacific.
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