This guitar belongs to Kaʻau McKenney, and we are really fortunate that Aunty Luana and his ʻohana had asked us to bring this guitar – his guitar – with us on the voyage. Throughout the voyage, we have been playing and playing and playing the guitar. It just so happens that when we were enroute to Huahine, between this guitar and the environment that surrounded us, all the inspiration that we got from this voyage of Mālama Honua, words and music came together. Here is the song Hōkūleʻa Waʻa Aloha.
We had the full gamut of conditions today. I started watch at 2am, and the canoe was socked in by what I will describe as fog. No horizon was present, winds were very light and variable, and it seemed like we were floating in mist. Jupiter rose out of the fog and cast light across the sea, like the moon does she rises. We spent the entire watch trying to hold any course possible. It didn’t work, and I’m sure our tracking map looks horrendous. By sunrise the sky started to clear and the the wind sucked out of the region. After a few hours daylight we were in the Pacific lake, and Bruce described it as what the doldrums look like in the north. There has been an incredible amount of “stuff” floating around in the ocean around here. Pumice by the thousands, most of them have creatures living on them. We caught a couple, and photographed them. 2pm brought us light winds form the south (the basic direction we want to go), and we kept sailing slowly until we could get back into the patch of wind that we are currently in that is allowing us back onto a decent course. We had the last of the real meats that the Maori have brought along on our huakaʻi. We had salmon alfredo (alfredo included) with lamb chops in mushroom sauce. All in all a great way to end the day, good food and some wind in the right direction. The hot day has been muted by this new wind. It cuts right through the capilene, and non-shelled jackets. We are definitely making our way south. The watches tonight will be colder than we have seen yet.
We estimate that we are approximately 380miles along our course line. We will assess in they morning if we are in the zone to start to look for Rangitahua tomorrow evening. Our speed is back up now so we may be able to make up some of what we lost today.
Mahalo nui for all the support,
Standing by 72,
Nāʻālehu
Aloha mai kākou! Thank you for following us on our voyage as we’re traveling down from Tongtatapu to Rangitahua and onto Aotearoa. We are thinking we are close to 400 miles along our course, more about 360 miles going off of our speed and direction of travel. We’re going to be verifying that tonight with stars that we’ll be measuring. We’re looking at Kauluakoko (Betelgeuse) and ʻAʻa (Sirius) as they should be rising together and stay together as they travel up into the sky. Last night, when we were looking at them, they were close. But tonight should be the night that they are closer and letting us know our position in the ocean is about 27 degrees south. We’re expecting to see Rangitahua maybe tomorrow evening or the day after in the morning. We’ll see how we travel along the ocean. Right now you can see the ocean is pretty calm. We are going about 4 knots in light winds and small seas. Thank you for continuing to follow us at Hokulea.com. Mahalo.
Aloha mai kākou, eia nō mākou ma ka moana nui ākea me ka “ʻōlelo a ke kilo hōkū hoʻokele waʻa.” I kēia lā, he wahi leo mahalo, he leo aloha kēia iā ʻoukou no ka hahai ʻana iā mākou a he hauʻoli lā heleuī iā ʻoukou. Ke manaʻo nei mākou aia mākou, ʻaneʻane pau hoʻokahi kaʻau mile ka holo ʻia ma kahi o ʻekolu haneli kanaono i ka nāpoʻo ʻana o ka lā i kēia lā, a ke mea, e hōʻoia ʻia ana nō i kēia ahiahi ke nānā aku i nā hōkū ʻo Kauluakoko me ʻAʻa, ke mahiki aʻe lāua a pili pū ma ka ʻIwaalike, pēlā e hōʻoia ai i ko mākou, kahi o ka moana. No laila, ke noʻonoʻo nei i kēia, kēia lā e hiki mai ana, kēia ahiahi paha, e ʻike paha ana iā Rangitahua mā, a koe aku ia. He mau hōkū ʻē aʻe ke nānā aku iā mākou ma ka Hema- ma ka ʻĀkau, ʻo ia nō ʻo mea, ʻIwakealiʻi mā, hiki nō ke ana i ko lākou kiʻekiʻe o ka lani, a pēlā nō e hōʻoia i kahi o mākou ma ka moana. A ʻo ia, i kēia manawa, he wahi kai mālie maoli nō a pā mai ana ka makani a mālie wale nō nā ʻale o ka moana, a holo maikaʻi ana nō nā waʻa. Hiki ke ʻike ʻia iā Hikianalia ma hope o mākou.
This will serve as your happy Halloween update from Hōkuleʻa and Hikianalia. We are all safe and doing well. This Halloween brought us a trick or treat aku this morning that we ate for lunch. There was also a bunch of Halloween candy passed out by our crew.
Hikianalia came by to say hi today, and at least two of the crew were dressed in costumes. It was pretty cool to be next to them to see the show. Weʻre in light winds right now, making progress, but slower than we would like. Weather was hot today too. Wind is still chilly even in the day time. Tonight the wind is turning a bit more cold, and crew are bracing for what will be sure to be a colder time as we head farther and farther out of the tropics.
Dinner was stuffing with pork boil up. I’ll give you one guess who cooked. ʻOno especially because it’s so cold.
I will also say that we were blessed with dolphins that played at the bow of the canoe for about 15 minutes, and the sunset was spectacular, even got the green flash. The moon is getting bigger and at this writing we have a full canopy of stars that are guiding us, slowly, to our destination.
Navigator Kaʻiulani Murphy answers a question from Maila at the University Lab School in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi.
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
Navigator Kaʻiulani Murphy answers a question from Shawna at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas
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.
The sun just set with a small green flash over our forward starboard beam. With the sun setting, we have calm seas and a steady 10-knot wind. The golden horizon blends from a soft orange to purple to blue as you look up to the heavens. The three quarter moon is directly overhead, quietly hiding behind the sails as we coast along. We were using it to steer this afternoon before the sun got low enough for us to use. Crews are starting to expect stars in certain parts of the heavens. Lehuakona (Antares) and Scorpio will appear shortly. Their position is awkward to us because we are so south. Orion should be overhead when the sky deepens to navy blue. The most stunning aspect of this time of day is the ocean. The sky reflects its color in the tops of the waves as they march north-northeast to south.
Everyone on both canoes are in good health and very high spirits. Hikianalia has been doing an excellent job at pacing us. The crew has worked tirelessly to keep next to us, even in light wind. They came up next to us to shoot pictures at sunset. Our hybrid rig is working pretty well. I’m sure it photographs great. We’ve modified jibs all day to try to ease the steering and gain speed. Winds, like forecasted, have been light all day. We’ve been getting 3-4 and sometimes eek out 5 knots out of what wind we do see. It’s a great lesson for steering and adjusting sails. Tonight’s dinner was pretty epic. Uncle Mel cooked us loco moco for dinner, complete with gravy on the rice and fried egg on top. The pupu was fish fried (ono) in panko with mayo wasabi sauce. The salad was tomatoes and cucumbers. All of this was served on a bed of cabbage for presentation. This will go down as one of the most memorable meals that I have had in my 2 decades of sailing with these canoes.
We are looking at being about half way to Raul, or about 267 miles along the course line. The team of navigation is great to watch and the roles unfold. Bruce is Bruce, ever the gentle teacher. He’s been running pop quizzes on the navigators all day. What star is that? What course are we on? How many miles true on the last watch? What do those clouds mean? The answers are usually carefully thought out and then discussed after. I feel so blessed to watch it all unfold. In fact, as I write this Bruce is lecturing about the southern circumpolar stars which we don’t see in Hawaiʻi. Great lesson. Bruce comments that they have had a good variation of all different conditions that challenge the navigation team. All of these are great learning opportunities for them as they work their way to navigating a canoe on their own.
Tomorrow will bring a new set of gifts to these canoes. They will come in the form of lessons that all of us can learn and hopefully begin to teach as we sail in the wake of our ancestors
