HONOLULU (AP) — Modern voyaging canoe Hikianalia arrived home Tuesday, guided by a team of apprentice navigators who faced some one of their toughest challenges yet.
The doubled-hulled vessel returned to Hawaiian waters after logging some 14,000 miles across the Pacific during the first year of a worldwide sail called Malama Honua, or “Care for the Earth,” the Hawaii Star-Advertiser reported (http://bit.ly/1d1FGbL).
Its 15-member crew contained three apprentice navigators who used the stars and swells to guide Hikianalia home, led by veteran Oahu voyager and ‘Iolani School teacher Catherine Fuller.
“The navigation was tough. The winds weren’t the best. The doldrums, we were stuck there for six days or more,” said apprentice navigator Kekaimalu Lee, referring to a stretch of ocean near the equator that is frequently marked by stagnant winds.
“But we found home; we pulled Hawaii out of the sea,” he added. Polynesian voyagers often describe encountering their island destination, as it nears the canoe, as “pulling it from the sea.”
Leaders of the Polynesian Voyaging Society consider these Pacific legs of the three-year Malama Honua journey to be critical training runs for a new generation of wayfinding navigators.
“Each one had a night that was just total brain damage, and each one came through and made the right decisions and we got to the right place,” Fuller said. “It really was a test of will and a test of endurance and a test of character for all of us.”
The Hikianalia originally left Hilo last May to serve as the science, technology and safety escort for Hokule’a, which is continuing on the Malama Honua sail.
But PVS President Nainoa Thompson said it would be safer for Hikianalia to avoid the volatile waters of the Indian Ocean and head back to Hawaii. A modern sailboat with the power to tow for longer distances will now accompany Hokule’a.
The canoe, which is often called “Hiki” by crew members, left Tahiti 28 days ago and spent the past two months sailing back from New Zealand.
As crew members set foot on the ground for the first time in nearly a month, they were swarmed by a crowd of 200 or so people who came to welcome them and give lei.
PVS officials have a new mission for Hiki, now that she has returned home. They plan to bring community members aboard the canoe to serve as crew for an additional 16,000 or so miles of sailing among the islands.
Hikianalia will sail solo as far as the French Frigate Shoals and as far south as Loihi, a seamount off Hawaii Island.