Ask the Crew | February 25, 2015
Periodically, we highlight the most original questions from our community of Worldwide Voyage followers and ask our crewmembers to share their answers.
Ask the Crew | Kalepa Baybayan: Where is the line between modern and traditional tools?
Aloha my name is Kālepa Baybayan and we have a question from Shauna from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The question is, “now that present day technologies have become such a critical part in today’s society, where do you draw the line between modern instruments of navigation and the traditional?” Well, our two canoes, Hōkūleʻa which is much older than our newer canoe, Hikianalia, being that it has a long history, will always be navigated using traditional methods. Hikianalia, because it’s an escort vessel will be navigated both traditionally, and will have at its availability GPS tracking just to make sure that the voyage is safely conducted. It’s a lot simpler to navigate traditionally without instruments because the whole sky is the compass, rather than looking at the little bubble of the magnetic compass. You just look around you to find your bearings. That’s a very good question. Both canoes have got different missions, again, Hōkūleʻa will always be navigating traditionally, without instruments, Hikianalia will be both navigated without instruments and it will have modern day tracking, in assistance to Hōkūleʻa. Anyway, good question, and I invite you to mālama honua share your ways of mālamaing honua and and follow the voyage on Hokulea.com Thank you.
Ask the Crew | Nakua Konohia-Lind: What do you treasure most about meeting new people?
Aloha, this is Nakua Kohohia-Lind on board Hōkūleʻa. We have been asked this question by Pumehana of Ka Waihona o Ka Naʻauao Public Charter School. The question is, “what do we as a crew treasure most, interacting with different people, from different countries?” So what I treasure most when interacting with people from different countries is the culture connecting and being able to share the Hawaiian culture with the Tahitian culture or the Maori culture. It’s amazing. So being able to take back the Maori culture to Hawaiʻi and show the kids back home how they do things in their everyday life or like how Tahitians do things in their everyday life. So we just look forward to sharing culture and interacting with people we meet and also making international friendships, international connections and being able to stay connected with the friends from around the world. Mahalo Pumehana for the awesome question, and we would like to see how you mālama honua. Thank you for supporting us, please keep supporting us and following us on Hokulea.com, mahalo and aloha.
Ask the Crew | Nakua Konohia-Lind: What is the most common fish caught on board?
Aloha, this is Nakua Kohohia-Lind onboard Hōkūleʻa. We were asked this question by Cooper of Punahou School. The question is, “what are the most common fish we catch on board Hōkūleʻa, and whether we use a fishing poll or a hand-line?” So Cooper, the most common fish we catch around New Zealand has been tuna, the native fish, Kahawai, which is native to New Zealand. Also, a fish known to Maori’s as King Fish but to Hawaiians as Kamanu, the rainbow runner. What we do is we take the line out here. We don’t usually use fishing polls. The reason is because it’s a little messy and we have less maintenance if we don’t have a fishing pole because we have to maintain the reels and maintain the pole itself. So we usually start off in the morning by throwing our lines out with a lure, and we hope that Kanaloa provides and gives us some good fish, some good feed for the day, and usually we bring the lines back up before sunset. Usually when sun rises, we throw it out and when the sun sets we bring it in because we don’t want to be dealing with fishing lines during the night, because it’s a little difficult and safety precautions, safety wise, that’s not a good thing to be doing during the night. Pretty much this whole area here is where we fish, and this is pretty much where all the magic happens. So mahalo for the question, Cooper and thank you for supporting our voyage and please continue to support us at Hokulea.com and please show us how you mālama honua, mahalo and aloha.
Periodically, we highlight the most original Ask-the-Crew questions and ask our crewmembers to share their answers with a video response. Check out more Ask-the-Crew responses here. Want to submit a question? Ask the crew by clicking here.
