On Monday November 7, 2016, Hōkūleʻa re-entered the water after an extensive and successful dry dock at the Mariners Museum.

PVS Education Volunteer Diane Tom-Ogata described the splash that day:

“Today, Hōkūleʻa touched the water of the eastern shore.  With crew on hand, she was lifted into the water, towed to Bluewater Marina, and smoothly docked by experienced crew and navigator Bruce Blankenfeld.  Within a few hours, Hōkūleʻa transformed from a seemingly simple craft to an alluring vision, with masts, spars & boom erected proudly and lines draped.  Crew and dedicated volunteers assisted with the minutiae of lashings, hull arrangement and the many other hundreds of details that the average person does not understand or probably even notice. As the sun began to set against a sky tinged in blue and red, there she sat, the Star of Gladness, shining bright on the water.”

As Hōkūleʻa made that small journey to Bluewater Marina, in Hampton, VA, her next hui of crewmembers packed their bags and began making their way from their respective homes to Virginia to start the next leg of the voyage. Crewmember Kaipo Kiaha describes their reunion with the canoe:

“After over 24 hours of travel for some of the crew, we have traveled across the United States and have been reunited with Hōkūleʻa in Hampton, Virginia at the Bluewater Marina.

We had a brief crew meeting over dinner with Nainoa and Lehua who are on their way out tomorrow morning. Nainoa spoke of his appreciation for this crew and all those before who have gotten the canoe this 27,000 miles from home. He also stressed to us that this will not be an easy sail, but he has utmost faith in our Captain, Kālepa, and our crew.

The sail plan will include roughly 16 stops covering 950 miles until we reach Miami. There is no planned outreach at this time as far as physical canoe tours.  We will only be moving the waʻa in daylight hours, which as we get closer to the end of the year are becoming fewer and fewer.

Sunset tonight was at 4:57, and it was fully dark by the time we arrived at the waʻa at around 6. It is a cool 45 degrees outside. Staying warm and dry will be of paramount importance over this next month.

Randy Rickard will arrive on Saturday. He is a local from Florida and will pilot Julie’s Cat. He will be going over the sail plan with Kālepa in detail on Saturday, including the ports of call, and conditions of marinas and navigational aides post-hurricane along the AIW (Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway). That day the crew will also apply the waterproofing liquid to the outside of the canvas. Saturday is forecast to be light wind which is the best condition for doing that.

Tomorrow we will be offloading some of the sails to return to Hawaii on the Matson container with the dry dock gear. We will also be prepping the canoe to leave: bending on sails, shopping, and loading food and water.”

Hōkūleʻa’s Dry Dock Fundraiser

Every year since embarking on the Worldwide Voyage in 2014, Hōkūleʻa has taken several weeks of downtime annually to ensure she is safe, seaworthy and beautiful for the thousands of nautical miles that lay ahead.

Please help fund Hōkūleʻa’s 2016 dry dock efforts.

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