Ask the Crew | February 26, 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 | Kālepa Baybayan: How historically accurate is the rigging on the Hōkūleʻa?
Aloha, I’m Kālepa Baybayan, and I’m on board Hikianalia. Today’s question comes from David from Norwich University, and it’s an excellent question: How historically accurate is the rigging on Hōkūleʻa and is there evidence that deadeyes and certain knots were used aboard historic voyaging canoes? We don’t know how historically accurate the rigging is on board Hōkūleʻa. Hōkūleʻa is a modern day replica, and it comes from a western style of rigging vessels. It’s because there were no traditional voyaging canoes, of the deep sea nature, when Hōkūleʻa was built. So we just have to go from what was familiar to us. The deadeye system is a western vessle-type system, it may have been on traditional canoes though. We don’t know, we don’t have any evidance of that. Know this though, with a simple rigged up canoe as prehistoric voyagers had, they were able to sail the vast Pacific Ocean. They probably got to South America, that’s how the sweet potato got there. Excellent question, we don’t know, again, we don’t know what traditionally rigged vessles looked like, because we weren’t alive during the historic period. Thank you for your question, David. Tell us how you mālama honua and enjoy the voyage on Hokulea.com A hui hou.
Ask the Crew | Vernon Ansdell: How does the medical officer help the crew with sea sickness?
Aloha, Dr. Vernon Ansdell on board the Hōkūleʻa, we have a question today from Vance who’s from Wilmington, North Carolina. His question is, “what does the medical officer do to help crew suffering from sea sickness and/or fatigue?” Well Vance, the key thing is to be prepared. Like with most things, when you’re sailing being prepared is really important, so be well-hydrated before you get on the canoe and set sail. Be well hydrated, have a positive attitude to the voyage coming up. We have a lot of medicines we can also use and for people who are really worried about it and have got seasick before, I think the medicines are a good idea. We have all sorts of medicines, we have pills that you can take, we have patches that go behind your ear, we have gum that you can chew, we have ginger that you can suck on or chew. Ginger is good, it’s a natural medicine that you can take and that supplements all these other things. The problem is a lot of these medicines that we use do have side effects so not something that you would want to use for everybody. When you’re on the canoe, or you’re at sea and you feel something coming on, it’s a good idea to look into the distance and focus on the horizon. Avoid doing little tasks in front of you like reading or preparing food, or looking at anything close. Fix on the horizon and the good news is that, in a day or two, however bad it is, it’s going to get better and then you can actually enjoy the sailing. So mahalo Vance for your question, please share your mālama honua and continue to follow the voyage on Hokulea.com. Mahalo.
Ask the Crew | Nakua Konohia-Lind: How is New Zealand food different from Hawa’i?
Aloha, this is Nakua Kohohia-Lind on board Hōkūleʻa. So we have a question today from Alohi of Kamehameha Schools Hawaiʻi campus. The question is, “is the food from New Zealand different from the food in served at ceremonies in Hawaiʻi?” So Alohi, awesome question, during this leg, I was a chef on board, and I was fortunate enough to be able to sail from Hawaiʻi to Tahiti on the first leg, on Hikianalia. During that voyage, we were able to drop a lot of weight, myself included. In New Zealand, you know, our ʻohana here really made sure we didn’t come skinny, so they fed us real good. So they always fed us food from the ocean, so they always had kena, which is similar to vana, in Hawaiʻi. They also have something called pawa, which is similar to our opihi, and they also have their mussels, which New Zealand is well-known for, and it is one of the best, so the mussels are amazing. And also they have lamb here which is usually cooked in an imu, they also allow us to use some pork and a little bit of beef. But it’s mostly land, and it’s mostly food from the ocean, so they’re really about the land food here, they’re really about the really eating off the land here, so it’s all good food and we all did not loose any weight. So mahalo for supporting us on this voyage, Alohi. Thank you for the awesome question, and please show us how you mālama honua and continue to follow us on Hokulea.com mahalo and aloha.
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