{"id":71747,"date":"2017-06-13T10:18:57","date_gmt":"2017-06-13T20:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hawaiicompro.wpengine.com\/?post_type=discover&p=71747"},"modified":"2023-09-21T10:43:32","modified_gmt":"2023-09-21T20:43:32","slug":"discoverhokulea-sacred-journey-global-reach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hawaii.com\/discoverhokulea-sacred-journey-global-reach\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacred Journey, Global Reach: A Story of Hokulea, the Canoe that Circled the Globe"},"content":{"rendered":"
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PHOTO: COURTESY \u2018OIWI TV.
Nearly 40 years to the day that the Hokule\u2018a crew sighted land in French Polynesia on its maiden voyage, the vessel sailed into New York in June 2016, passing the Statue of Liberty in the distance.<\/p><\/div>\n

One of the most harrowing tests of the whole undertaking came on Oct. 14, 2015.<\/p>\n

Half a world away from Hawaii, on the voyage\u2019s most dangerous leg, the Hokule\u2018a fled a fierce ocean storm that had already torn part of its canvas covering. It sought safe harbor in Maputo, Mozambique.<\/p>\n

For the first time in recorded history, a Polynesian sailing canoe had reached the African continent. But its sailors had also detoured to an unscheduled port where nobody expected them. The foreign double-hulled craft would have to stay offshore in Maputo\u2019s frigid bay tied to its escort boat, Gershon II, which dropped anchor.<\/p>\n

There, in the darkness and the driving rain, exhausted crew members worked to keep the Hokule\u2018a downwind of the Gershon II as a miniature perfect storm of gale-force winds and fast-shifting currents tossed around the two vessels.<\/p>\n

Eventually they would collide. The impact left a softball-\u00adsize hole in the Hokule\u2018a\u2019s starboard bow \u2014 and some aboard in tears.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis moment will break your crew. It\u2019ll break it,\u201d captain Nainoa Thompson recalled weeks later. \u201cAnd we said, this moment where Hokule\u2018a was damaged will not define the mana of this crew. What will define it is because we took care of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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PHOTO: COURTESY \u2018OIWI TV.
The Hokule\u2018a rounds the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa en route to Cape Town in November of 2015. This segment of the voyage marked the halfway point of the more than 46,000-mile journey.<\/p><\/div>\n

The crew regrouped. Its members improvised repairs and reached South Africa as planned. Once safely in Cape Town, they were embraced by one of the world\u2019s most celebrated champions for human rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cHuman beings can be so courageous,\u201d Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu told them, sitting on his office balcony near the city waterfront. \u201cHuman beings can be so inventive that they are ready to take the risks sailing around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s amazing and uplifting,\u201d he added with a grin.<\/p>\n

In the past three years, more than 250 volunteer sailors joined one of the most ambitious feats in Hawaii\u2019s history: an around-the-world canoe voyage dubbed Malama Honua (\u201cCare for the Earth\u201d).<\/p>\n

Each of those sailors was tested in their own way.<\/p>\n

They lived out of cramped hulls, stuffed their belongings into waterproof coolers and managed what sleep they could on plywood boards and foam pads. They steered through the night using the canoe\u2019s large stern sweeps, often fighting fatigue to stay on course.<\/p>\n

They strapped on safety harnesses to change sails and tighten lines; hauled heavy anchors out of the water; loaded bulky supplies; cooked hearty meals for a dozen people using a camping stove; and showered with pails of seawater scooped from the stern.<\/p>\n

They navigated vast oceans as well as their own interpersonal relationships.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get together with a group of people that you don\u2019t necessarily know and you become so close to them, they become family,\u201d crew member Kaniela Hoku Lyman-\u00adMersereau said. \u201cThe wayfinding is really finding your way around people. Not only getting along, but meeting new people. There\u2019s always something going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

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PHOTO: COURTESY \u2018OIWI TV.
Jason Patterson of Makiki and Haunani Kane of Kailua apprenticed under Nainoa Thompson (not pictured).<\/p><\/div>\n

Supported by numerous other volunteers back home, these sailors spent weeks away from Hawaii in far-flung ports and on the open ocean \u2014 pushing the canoe past its Pacific boundaries and into distant communities that had never seen such a curious sea vessel.<\/p>\n

They explored temple ruins, participated in sacred welcome ceremonies, dived on pristine coral reefs, greeted world leaders, toured national parks and the NASA Kennedy Space Center, and paid tribute to local indigenous groups wherever they could.<\/p>\n

They sailed more than 46,000 miles, visiting more than 150 ports in 19 countries. The Oahu-based Polynesian Voyaging Society reports raising over $10 million in cash \u2014 the bulk from Hawaii businesses and charitable foundations \u2014 and relying on about $20 million more in volunteer sweat and in-kind services to make the whole thing happen.
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PHOTO: COURTESY POLYNESIAN VOYAGING SOCIETY \/ \u2018OIWI TV.
Hokule\u2019a sails back into Polynesia as she makes her way from the Galapagos to Rapa Nui.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

It was all for a larger purpose. With Malama Honua, the Hokule\u2018a aimed to rally support around the globe to protect marine resources and preserve local cultures.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re on the wrong sail plan,\u201d Thompson would often tell audiences in ports around the world.<\/p>\n

The oceans, which generate about 70 percent of the world\u2019s oxygen, are warming, rising and growing more acidic. Coral reefs around the world are dying at rates never before recorded, researchers say. Overfishing is pushing tuna and other large fish populations to the brink. A gyre of trash the size of Texas continues to grow in the Pacific.<\/p>\n

On tiny Henderson Island, which the Hokule\u2018a briefly visited during its 2017 stay in the Pitcairns, scientists recently encountered an estimated 38 million pieces of debris. Most of it was plastic. They estimate that 13,000 new pieces of debris wash up on the remote Pacific island every day.<\/p>\n

Thompson, who\u2019s also president of PVS, and the voyage\u2019s organizers felt they had to do something to address the mounting environmental crises. \u201cYou can keep the canoes tied to the dock, but you can\u2019t complain,\u201d he told Tuiatua Tupua Tamasese Efi, the Samoan head of state, during the voyage\u2019s visit to Apia, Samoa.<\/p>\n

Malama Honua\u2019s success was far from guaranteed. Sailing around the world meant that the Hokule\u2018a, a 62-foot-long vessel that\u2019s little more than wood, fiberglass and about 5 miles of lashing and rigging, would face the threat of hurricanes, pirates, rogue waves and what organizers projected could be as many as five man-overboard emergencies. (In the end they would report having just one man-overboard, with that sailor safely rescued.)<\/p>\n

Once the sail was underway, voyage organizers found much of the long-term weather data they had collected to be unreliable, with more hurricanes brewing and the winds changing.<\/p>\n

The \u201cthousands\u201d of decisions Thompson had to make in the past three years to help keep crews safe have taken their toll, he said. \u201cI\u2019m really tired,\u201d he said. \u201cThe reason why I\u2019m exhausted is that responsibility never goes away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, he believes the journey was worth it and that the greater danger would have been to keep the Hokule\u2018a tied to the dock on Sand Island rather than to face the voyage\u2019s risks.<\/p>\n

As of early June this epic voyage of aloha was poised to succeed with a new Hokule\u2018a captain, Pomai Bertelmann, and navigator, Ka\u2018iulani Murphy, as they guided the canoe safely home on the final stretch. Apprentice navigators were bringing its escort canoe, Hikianalia, safely to Hawaii, too.<\/p>\n

Around the globe the canoes encountered thousands of people concerned with protecting the environment for future generations. They collected community stories, highlighted conservation efforts and built a unique worldwide network to help further the cause.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere weren\u2019t really 13 people \u2014 there were thousands of people\u201d aboard the Hokule\u2018a, said crew member Linda Furuto, a University of Hawaii College of Education professor.<\/p>\n

One afternoon in Apia, as the canoes made final preparations to sail north toward Tokelau, Eric Co noticed a Samoan man chanting to them. Co turned to Junior \u201cRex\u201d Lokeni, a fellow Hokule\u2018a crew member from Samoa whom Co met days earlier, and asked him to translate to English.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are family. You have come from us. Your blood is my blood. Your bones are my bones,\u201d Lokeni translated. \u201cSo when you sail, I sail with you.\u201d<\/p>\n