Te Lapa: Mysterious island lights that help Polynesians navigate

[Judi Lynn]

Glenda Lewis
05:00, Dec 23 2019



ABIGAIL DOUGHERTY/STUFF

Fa'afaite, a double-hulled voyaging canoe from Tahiti, sails with the Tuia 250 voyage flotilla at dawn. Polynesian navigators relied on a little understood light source called Te Lapa.

They call it Te Lapa, which means flashing light. It emanates from islands, homing in the ocean voyagers.

Dr Marianne (Mimi) George is an experienced sailor and a cultural anthropologist, based in Hawaii. She has seen Te Lapa herself, although initially she thought her eyes were playing tricks on her.

New Zealand doctor David Lewis also witnessed it on his Pacific voyages with traditional navigators, who have long used Te Lapa as a navigation aid, though no-one can explain its source.

Lewis was the author of the foundation text on traditional navigation, We the Navigators (1972). He famously put his own boat in charge of master navigators like Chief Kaveia​ from Taumako​ in the Santa Cruz Islands, to observe their reckoning.

More:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/science/118330618/te-lapa-mysterious-island-lights-that-help-polynesians-navigate

[mitch96]

1. This is way cool..I wonder if the Vikings used anything like this sort of navigation.... nt

[wnylib]

2. I was thinking that it would be a reflection of

light from the sun on water and the movement of waves would account for the blinking, but that would be too changeable to use for reliable navigation. Could it be reflected sunlight on sand, indicating where land is?