I heard that polynesians, when asked (in the context of setting out on deadly journeys in wooden boats) "how did you know there would be land there" said "we re

I heard that polynesians, when asked (in the context of setting out on deadly journeys in wooden boats) "how did you know there would be land there" said "we read the waves". They could see from the patterns in the waves, thousands of miles away, where the land masses were. >insert joke about training neural networks (If anyone knows the original quotes, please post below.)