NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 772 Direction
Night fell, stars trailing across the plains.
The sea surface twinkled with light, the sound of water reverberating.
Bi Fang lifted the wooden plank, unfolded the palm leaves, and opened the canvas bag, where pieces of shark meat patties were neatly arranged. He picked up one, its rich smoky aroma wafting through the air, occasionally intermingled with traces of fishiness.
Ground into a pulp, then salted and spiced, sun-dried, and finally smoked—sometimes even fried on one side. After such a complex process, ordinary people might no longer detect the distinctive smell of shark meat, but to Bi Fang's nose, it was still there, only mostly masked by the smoky scent.
It tasted nothing like shark meat; the predominating flavors were those of salt and smoke. It wasn't unpleasant to eat, quite similar to an ordinary meat patty.
However, to remove toxins and the smell of urine, such complex preparation naturally led to a loss of many nutrients. Bi Fang mixed it with the fish he caught earlier that day to eat, which made for a rather satisfying meal.
"That's all for today's live stream. Although nothing much happened, the real challenge is yet to come; I need to stay alert."
After dinner and a casual chat on the live stream, Bi Fang turned off the broadcast and lay down inside the Viking, gazing up at the starry sky.
The boat's body swayed unpredictably.
The hull of the Viking was deep, so deep that lying inside and looking out, one could only see a vast expanse of stars. Although narrow, the confined space surprisingly offered a sense of security.
Bi Fang rested the back of his head on his arms, with a hint of fatigue, he drifted into sleep.
The next day.
The fishing line was taut as Bi Fang stood at the bow, wrestling with a large fish in the sea, sweat pouring down his temples, leaving white salty trails.
The whole boat was being towed by the fish, its outline blurred under the scattered shadows of the sun, making it impossible to see what kind of fish it was.
Half an hour later, unable to hold on any longer, the line snapped with a crack, and the large fish disappeared without a trace.
Bi Fang slumped on the deck, panting heavily, lifted the lid of the water collection device, and downed a wooden cup of water, exhaling deeply afterwards.
He stretched out his hands, covered with cracked skin and a slight numb pain, almost rubbed raw by the mighty fish.
"Darn, I felt so close!"
"What a pity."
"I bet it was at least a Bluefin Spearfish!"
"Master Fang, what kind of fish was that? Tell us!"
Bi Fang shook his head, "I don't know either. It was under the water the whole time, and the weather today was so good that the water surface was all glimmering. I couldn't see what fish it was. It might as well have been a Blue Marlin, haha."
Having sailed for a day and still encountering such a large fish was quite rare. However, Bi Fang wasn't too disappointed, as he wasn't fishing for food.
If he caught some, great, but if not, he wouldn't starve.
"There are fewer and fewer birds in the sky."
Bi Fang sat up and looked up at the sky. During the previous day, seabirds could often be seen over the sea, but now he couldn't see any.
This indicated that the direction of the canoe was correct: they were moving away from islands and landmasses.
"Speaking of birds, there is a rather interesting matter concerning how Polynesian People sought islands in the vast Pacific Ocean."
"For ocean voyaging, a ship alone was not enough; Polynesian People also had to resolve the issue of navigation. Although they didn't have compasses or marine chronometers, people back then had learned to use the stars for guidance. If they couldn't align their heading during the day, they could do it at night. However, they couldn't predict the future; they had no way of knowing where islands or lands were."
[Without Master Fang mentioning it, I wouldn't have even been aware of this problem.]
[So, it was determined by the birds?]
[What does it mean to connect with the context, haha.]
"That's right, their method of finding islands was more innovative — they followed the birds!"
"Polynesian People noticed that most seabirds need to nest on islands, and even when they go out to forage, they do not travel too far from the islands."
"At dusk, birds always fly towards a particular direction. If you follow them, you could easily discover islands."
[I bow to the wisdom of these ancients!]
[That's so clever.]
[But speaking of, they use the stars to navigate at night, so what do they do during the day? If they go astray, do they just keep going wrong?]
"It's not quite like that." Bi Fang, pointing to the sun overhead, said, "If you are sensitive enough to the height of the sun, you can actually make a rough determination of direction, or you could set up a stick and observe the length of the shadow it casts. But this requires great skill on the individual's part."
"Although it will change with the seasons, the pattern of the sun's altitude changes is constant. As long as you record the month and understand the expected altitude changes of the sun for that month."
[Is that something people can actually do?]
The audience was somewhat skeptical.
The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, and it reaches its highest point at noon. That much was indisputable. Therefore, by comparing with the position from yesterday, you naturally could also figure out the approximate time now.
But such a comparison was admittedly challenging.
However, for Bi Fang, this wasn't the case; his Memory Forest allowed him to virtually hold a photo of the sun's highest point from yesterday and compare it with today, reducing the error margin to even within half an hour.
"With the time determined, it's easier to deduce the direction. For example, you could draw a chart, mark the time on it, and that's the simplest sundial method for direction—look at the angle the hour hand makes with 12 o'clock, take half of that number, and it should be the approximate position of the sun."
"Once you've grasped this concept, say it's 8 o'clock in the morning, you lift your watch and align the 10 o'clock direction towards the sun, then the 12 o'clock direction is roughly south. I've actually explained this more than once."
"In addition, there is wind direction. Sometimes the sea has seasonal winds, I've talked about this too. Then there are ocean currents; the direction of the water flow is regular, usually flowing from a high-pressure area to a low-pressure area. If you can approximately determine your location, you could deduce the direction based on the ocean current."
"However, whether it's wind direction or ocean current, both require extensive geographical knowledge and are a bit more difficult to master. I don't recommend them as the primary methods. Moreover, currents in the South Pacific are not very useful. Remember what I said before? There is a big gyre here, and within this current vortex, it is completely still."
"Wind direction, on the other hand, is easy to determine. The surface wind field in the South Pacific is very stable. I won't say much, but at low altitudes, it's generally the southeast trade winds in April."
"If you can't use any of the above methods, then see if there's a piece of thin wire around, and prepare a bowl of water. This is the ultimate simple method, but since it's on the ocean, the sway is quite significant, so the success rate and accuracy depend a lot on the timing."
Bi Fang rummaged around Inside the Viking for a while and finally found a paperclip.
Before setting out, Bi Fang had purposely collected some seemingly useless "junk" on Easter Island, for such an occasion.