An Ocean in Mind

Will Kyselka

University of Hawaii Press, 1987 - Sports & Recreation - 244 pages

An Ocean in Mind poses a number of provocative questions about the ways in which the human mind acquires, utilizes, and transmits different forms of knowledge. Author Will Kyselka has woven an exploration of this theme around the story of the Hokule'a, a re-creation of a traditional Polynesian sailing vessel that completed a successful roundtrip journey between Hawaii and Tahiti in 1980. From this story emerges portraits of two men who played integral roles in that voyage.

Nainoa Thompson, a young man of Hawaiian descent, kept the Hokule'a on its 6,000-mile course using only the stars and the sea as his guides. He was inspired by Carolinian navigator Mau Piailug, a gentle, softspoken man with keen instincts and an unlimited understanding of the oceans and heavens derived from his Oceanic cultural past. Thompson also worked with Kyselka to generate a body of information concerning movement of the stars using the Bishop Museum Planetarium as a resource.

How Thompson was eventually able to forge these vastly different approaches to knowledge into a cogent wayfinding system uniquely his own, and his rediscovery of an almost forgotten cultural heritage in the process, makes for a thrilling adventure story.

Contents

• Convergence: 3
• In the Beginning: 7
• PolynesiaWatery World: 11
• Tahiti 1976: 17
• Kealaikahiki: 23
• High Wind High Hope: 24
• Stellar Clues: 33
• Journey by Starlight: 43
• Two Men Two Ways: 55
• Into the Smoke: 65
• Increasing Momentum: 69
• Singapore Swing: 79
• Strategy: 91
• In Peril on the Sea: 101
• Waiting for the Wind: 113
• Stormy Weather: 121
• Halcyon Days: 131
• In and out of the Doldrums: 147
• Speeding over the Equator: 161
• Slowing down South: 171
• The Bounding Main: 187
• The Wayfinder: 201
• Perspective: 219
• The Blessing: 231
• Crew Members on Hokulea 1976 1977 1978 1980: 233
• For Further Reading: 235
• Index: 237

Bibliographic information

• Title: An Ocean in Mind; A Kolowalu book
• Author: Will Kyselka
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: University of Hawaii Press, 1987
• ISBN: 0824811127, 9780824811129
• Length: 244 pages
• Subjects: Sports & Recreation / Canoeing; Sports & Recreation / Sailing