Tuesday

Foggy Sailing Navigation

Modern man is lavishly spoiled with high tech equipment. Gone are the days when sailors had to navigate through fog or cloudy days without proper instruments to determine the direction of the sun.

Have you ever thought about what it must have been like for the vikings as they sailed the waters without instruments? Or, did they also make use of technology for their time? We know it wasn't with a Rolex!

Forced toward innovation, the vikings utilized a form of technology, which was supplied by the earth rather than man. On cloudy or foggy days their sundials were not illuminated by the sun, so they must have had another means for navigation on cloud-covered days.

One theory is they sailed through the waters aided by natural crystals as they filtered the light, which changed colors and brightness to reveal the direction of the sun. It makes for interesting reading, and soon we become quite thankful for modern technology.

Suddenly we realize it's a minor hassle to adjust our clocks and computers for the new daylight savings time schedule.