H20 to Go

By ʻOiwi TV

Being out on the open ocean for an extended period of days requires lots of mathematical planning, especially with limited room for fresh water storage.

“For the water that we load on board, we have allotted a gallon per person per day, and that’s only for drinking and cooking. Everything else weʻd normally use water for on land, we have the salt water for that. We will have on Hōkūleʻa about 56 water jugs, 5 and 6 gallon jugs. Each crew member has their own water bottle that theyʻll fill throughout the day as needed. You try not to drink too much because you’re aware that this water supply that we have has to last us through the whole voyage” said Hōkūleʻa watch captain Kaʻiulani Murphy.

Aside from monitoring the amount of water used, is where the water is stored on the canoe during the voyage.

“When we loaded onboard, those jugs are placed in the hull so that the center of the canoe has the most weight,” said Kaʻiulani.

Along with weight distribution, a system is set in place to make sure that all jugs are accounted for the voyage.

“Another, just that makes it easier is by having all the odd numbered jugs on the port side and all the even numbered on the starboard side. So when you see the number of the jug on board, you know automatically, it should be coming from one side or the other and we, in our manifest, have exactly what numbers are in which holds,” said Kaʻiulani.