Visitors from the Past

Last night as we slept, two canoes arrived from Hawai'i: the Hokule'a and the Alingano Maisu. These are navigational canoes built in the ancient style of Polynesian long distance traveling crafts. The contain no navigational equipment, only a navigator. The navigator is a person who has learned the ancient art of navigating on the open ocean using waves, currents, swells and stars.
After hundreds of years, Hawaiians had lost their ability to navigate. In the 1970's they tried to resurrect the skill, but there were no Hawaiians to learn it from. They searched all over the Pacific and found a man named Mau Piailug on the Micronesian island of Satawal. He agreed to teach his sacred knowledge to the Hawaiians. In 1976 he steered the first "contemporary" navigational canoe 2500 miles from Hawai'i to Tahiti with no modern instruments.
Here are the two canoes parked off Misko Beach at the mouth of Sokehs Bay. They will leave soon for Satawal in Yap State. They will give one of the canoes to Mao Piailug as a way of honoring him. He is getting old and is quite sick. After leaving Satawal, the crew will continue to Japan in the other canoe.
Sailors on these canoes are totally exposed to the elements. Several of the 16 crew members gave a little talk today and were saying how when they arrived in Majuro (after leaving Hawai'i 27 days earlier), a huge wave washed over the vessel.

In building and navigating these boats, the goal is to Protect, Perpetuate and Preserve Hawaiian culture. They have traveled on these vessels throughout Polynesia, from Easter Island to New Zealand, and have even visited the west coast of the United States.