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Hōkūleʻa Update | January 4, 2016

Aloha ahiahi kākou eia nō mākou ma kēia wahi waʻa kaulua o kākou ʻo ia nō ʻo Hōkūleʻa. A ʻo wau nō hoʻi kahi hoa kipa o ʻoukou ʻo Kaleomanuiwa Wong, he wahi haumāna hoʻokele kēia na ke aliʻi nui, ke kahuna nui hoʻokele waʻa ʻo ʻAnakala Bruce Mealoha Blankenfeld. Mahalo no ke kipa ʻana mai iā mākou ma kēia wahi waʻa. Eia nō mākou ke noke nei i ka holo ʻana i ke komohana ʻo ka hale o ia, o ke komohana, ʻo ia nō ʻo ka ʻāina hoʻolua. Ke noke nei nō i ka holo ʻana ma kahi nō o ʻelima mile no kēlā me kēia hola. I luna aʻe paha i lalo iho paha. Eia naʻe, ʻo ka mea maʻamau ʻelima mile no kēlā me kēia hola. Ua maikaʻi nō ka holo mau ana o kēia waʻa he fea wini a he ʻale e hahai mai ana. He nanea nō ka holo ʻana popohe pono nā peʻa a ia mea aku, a ia mea aku. Eia naʻe no ka hoʻokele ana i kēia wahi waʻa ua paʻakikī ʻoiai ua puni mau ka lewa i ke ao ua paʻakikī ka ʻike ana ka lā, ka mahina, ka hōkū. A hele i ʻō a ʻō ka makani ʻaʻole pā mai me ka mālie me ka noke mau mai kahi a i kahi mea lā. No laila paʻakikī ka hoʻokele ʻana i kēia wahi waʻa, eia naʻe eia nō mākou ke holo nei, ke noke nei i ka hoʻokele like me nā kūpuna a pae aku i kahi wahi, kahi moku liʻiliʻi ʻo St. Helena. He wahi leo aloha iā ʻoe e ka uʻi nohea o Maunawili a me nā kānaka aloha ʻāina ma Hawaiʻi a me nā honua holoʻokoʻa. Mahalo no ka hāhai ʻana mau iā mākou, hui hou kākou i kekahi wā aʻe, aloha.

Please help keep us sailing for future generations. All contributions make a difference for our voyage. Mahalo nui loa!

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Hōkūleʻa Update | January 3, 2016

Aloha ahiahi kakou. This is Kaleo Wong reporting to you direct from the pola of Hōkūleʻa on our leg 16 voyage from Cape Town across the Atlantic to Brazil. Here we are on day 10 of our journey. We expect about a week more before we get to our destination of St Helena. We currently estimate our position at a little over 300 miles from the continent of Africa towards our destination of St. Helena. Were having awesome weather for sailing, fair winds and following seas, very nanea sailing. Itʻs still been difficult to navigate as we still have the fog with use from Namibia and constant overcast skies making it difficult to see our navigational tools being the sun the moon and the stars. We have variable winds and small seas that also make it difficult to navigate. But were still continuing on as our ancestors have done for thousands of years and are excited about our first landfall in about a week. Weʻll continue to broadcast to you all from the deck of this canoe as we continue on our voyage.  Mahalo for following us and continue to follow us on www.hokulea.com Mahalo nui, Aloha.

Please help keep us sailing for future generations. All contributions make a difference for our voyage. Mahalo nui loa!

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Hōkūleʻa Update | January 1, 2016

Happy New Year from the Hōkūleʻa! We celebrated the new year with a countdown and a dropping of a light down the mast.  Times Square would be proud. Three, two, one…..Happy New Year! Then there were hugs all around and a celebratory ʻawa ceremony. We all gave thanks to a wonderful year with the PVS ʻohana, being on the Atlantic Ocean on a star filled night, and sharing it with Hōkūleʻa.

Happy New Year from the Hōkūleʻa! We celebrated the new year with a countdown and a dropping of a light down the mast.  Times Square would be proud. Three, two, one…..Happy New Year! Then there were hugs all around and a celebratory ʻawa ceremony. We all gave thanks to a wonderful year with the PVS ʻohana, being on the Atlantic Ocean on a star filled night, and sharing it with Hōkūleʻa.

The celebrations we share will be cherished long past our time, as we share our experiences and stories with future generations of explorers. These stories are initiated by the incredibly creative, innovative, adaptive, and tireless logistics team in the home office.  The “Dream Team”, Ramona, Heidi, Miki, Moana, Mikiala and Trisha, make dreams come true! Organizing the travel plans for crews back and forth to the other side of the world with only a couple of weeks turn around. Cutting through Passport red-tape, usually very thick red-tape, while working on a world clock that is 24 hours a day. And they have been doing this for years always a step ahead of the ever-changing plans.  Itʻs a Miracle!  The crew truly feels we have the easy job of the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage. Thanks to all of you from all of us!

We have a sparkling, sunny, light wind day for the first day of 2016. We put up the spinnaker and are making steady headway on comfortable conditions, fair winds and following seas. Memories of a starry-sky night New Year celebration are reminisced with shared smiles.

Mahalo Hōkūleʻa for 40 years of aloha, we all look forward to a happy new year sailing with you carrying the pride of Hawaii and the Hawaiian people around the world.

By: Bruce Black

Please help keep us sailing for future generations. All contributions make a difference for our voyage. Mahalo nui loa!

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Hōkūleʻa Update | December 30, 2015

By Bruce Black

Last night, a cold fog rolled in on us, the wind slowly died to 3-4 mph, and the ocean turned silver gray – it was like sailing in a cloud. The fog surrounded us, and blocked out all the stars – all we had to guide us were Jupiter and the Moon.  With Gershon II limping behind us, and other fishing vessels in the area floating unseen in the fog, Captain Bruce decided it was time to tow to the wind and get out of the cloud. The tow was picked up masterfully, and both vessels moved smoothly as the sun worked to burn off the fog. We know the fog is a common occurrence for this area, we think caused by the cold-water upwelling of the Walvis Ridge and the air temperature.

The morning (Day 7, December 30) was a perfect time to scrub the deck and disinfect all the equipment, boxes, and bathroom; and also a wonderful time to take a refreshing bucket shower.  Late this afternoon we dropped tow and put up our red drifter sail, a very lightweight spinnaker/jib for light winds. It is still slow sailing at 3 knots, and still foggy. We did catch another fish, a 5-pound aku, which led to another great dinner cooked by Gary.

The Doc is making sure everyone is healthy, drinking plenty water, applying sunscreen, and paying attention to general body maintenance. Kealoha has done a few safety briefings on the vest and man-overboard drill.     Everyone is in great spirits, sharing a lot of fascinating stories, bad jokes, and good times.

-Bruce Black, on behalf of Leg 16 Crew

Please help keep us sailing for future generations. All contributions make a difference for our voyage. Mahalo nui loa!

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Hōkūleʻa Update |December 29, 2015

Aloha ahiahi kakou, My name is Kaleo Wong iʻm the haumana hoʻokele on this voyage from Cape Town to St. Helena to Fernando and on to Brazil. Here we are on our 5th day out of Cape Town travelling up the coast of the continent of Africa. Tonight is a night where were going to turn away from the land and begin our traditional navigation down to this tiny little island of St. Helena about 1200 miles away from here. You can see behind us the unique situation where we are surrounded by this fog as this is the first time that Hokuleʻa has been through fog. It was somewhat expected as we saw on our charts that there is fog out here but its still pretty surreal out here to be going through this weather. Itʻll also make it a little more challenging to navigate this canoe traditionally becuase weʻre not going to be able to see the sun and the stars. Right now the sun is up in the sky but we cant see it at all, the fog is all around us.  The Gershon is not far away from us and we canʻt see them either. We donʻt have a visual on them but they can see us through their tracking devices. Right now weʻve been having pretty good weather, nice weather for sailing, good winds, small seas, and all the crew is doing awesome on board.  Weʻve been catching some so right now were eating fish for dinner; fish curry, sashimi, pasta, all kinds of creations that our chef uncle Gary Yuen has been preparing. Mahalo for following us and weʻll try to get more updates to you as we make our way to St. Helena about 10 days out from where we are now. Continue to follow us at Hokulea.com

Please help keep us sailing for future generations. All contributions make a difference for our voyage. Mahalo nui loa!

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Hōkūleʻa Update | December 29, 2015

By: Bruce Black

After Hōkūleʻa departed Cape Town and celebrated her very first Mele Kalikiwaʻa at sea, the crew has been reporting good sailing, fishing, and spirits – Happy Holidays indeed!

Day 4 (December 27) was a good sailing day for both Hōkūleʻa and Gershon II. We are averaging about 7 knots on 15-20 mph SSE winds and small seas of 4 feet, with clear skies all day. It was a great day to fine-tune our steering skills. The watch teams are all working really well together. We have been eating very well thanks to Gary; today we caught a 12 pound mahimahi, it was delicious.  The evening brought cloud cover and made it cooler, luckily we have foul weather gear, boots, cap and gloves.  We could still see some break-through stars, and steered by what stars were visible and by the moon.

The morning of Day 5 (December 28) it warmed up. We caught a nice 22-pound big-eye tuna….excellent eating. Kealoha cut ʻem up nice and everyone was in high spirits. Gary cooked the fish four different ways: poke, poisson cru, fried and in a soup – amazing as always. Winds are steady 15 mph SSE, small seas of 4-6ft.  Everyone is in good health, all sleeping better and getting into routines. On my watch I notice that we are communicating about the steering without talking…. we’re all beginning to think the same way, in tune with he waʻa, in the zone. It seems to be the same with the other watches, too.

The afternoon brought us in proximity to an Ethiopian ship, Emperor V, a big trawler plowing it’s way up the coast.  We also saw a few other ships in the distance.  The night was cloudless and chilly – the coldest night yet – a great night for stars.  We got good look at the stars, and Kaleo Wong pointed out the path to guide us there that is fixed in his mind.  Under Captain Bruce’s command, we will be starting the navigational section of this voyage and will be following Navigator Kaleo Wong’s studious directions to Saint Helena and beyond.  Captain Bruce gave us a pep-talk about steering an accurate course, staying focused, and working as a team.

At about 3:00am this morning (Day 6, December 29), the fog rolled in and has been with us all day.  Gershon II  sounded it’s fog horn for practice, and we have been monitoring ships in the area. Winds were about 15mph with small 4-ft seas, good sailing. Fishing was also good today – six kamanu (rainbow runners) came on the lines; we let two go, lost one and pulled in a 5-pounder and 7-pounder before pulling in the lines for the day.

As I write this, weʻre going at about 5-knots; this afternoon we are turning west towards St. Helena.  We have had six days to refine our steering, and are all looking forward to the challenge of pulling the island from the sea.

-Bruce Black on behalf of Leg 16 Crew

Please help keep us sailing for future generations. All contributions make a difference for our voyage. Mahalo nui loa!

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