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this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2026
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestial_navigation
That should answer all your navigation questions.
Regarding crew morale, I haven't studied Columbus since maybe HS, but I do recall the voyage was a fairly close thing. His calculations severely underestimated the size of the Earth, so he was sailing for much longer than he expected to be. I'm not sure if he had to put down any attempted mutinies, but it wouldn't surprise me.
I think the deal was that hé got lucky. He calculated a much smaller earth but it worked out because he thought hé was going to sail to "India". Nobody knew there was a whole:ass continent in between. Which is why it's called the West Indies and we still have "Indians" in the American West