moon direction

  He was not sure how long he slept, but when he awakened the raft was drifting on a large, flat plain of water, bobbing sideways.
  There was no sign of the river.
  In the faint moonlight he could see no banks, knew no direction to travel.
  “But…” he said aloud. The sound of his voice startled some animal and there was a loud splashing to his right.
  A large animal, he thought — perhaps a moose. That meant there was a shore, then, a bank for an animal to run on — close.
  So use thought, use logic. Use it. Think.
  The river was flowing generally southeast. It must have widened into a lake.
  The moon.
  The moon was straight overhead when he went to sleep.
  Now it was down a ways to the right.
  Down to the west. Like the sun it rose in the east, set in the west.
  The moon was about halfway down from overhead in the same direction as the splashing animal.
  So.
  Brian threw water in his face.
  So the river had widened into a lake, but he had moved along the west bank. If he kept moving the raft with the paddle he should come to where the river narrowed again, and pick up the current.