Hōkūleʻa Update | October 27, 2016: Nāʻālehu Anthony
We had dinner tonight out at a restaurant called Harpoon Larrys. Tom Cunningham leaves us tomorrow so we went out to send him off with well wishes and aloha. Our two volunteers, Georgia and John also joined us as they have become part of the ‘ohana. Tom’s can-do attitude, as well as his great cooking, will be missed. But he has other volunteer work scheduled in other parts of the world so we must bid him farewell.
The epoxy and coats of varnish are really starting to make an impact on the look and feel of the masts and spars. Big bill takes his time with the coats, careful to apply just the thinnest touch of varnish so he doesn’t run any of it across the hundreds of linear feet that he has to cover each day. I think Captain Bruce is shooting for 6 coats of varnish on everything over the course of this year’s dry dock. That is also on top of whatever amount of epoxy is being applied. It’s slow going work, especially in this weather as the materials take extra time to harden because of the cold weather here.
The second day of painting commenced today. The rest of the painting crew arrived today so I’m guessing that it’s full speed ahead tomorrow. Most of the canoe is prepped to paint at this point so cleaning and taping are on the agenda for tomorrow for some of the crew. The painting conditions are similar to the varnish and so there are only a handful of hours that are available to actually paint between the mornings when the canoe is covered in dew, and the evenings when the sun dips behind the trees and it’s too frigid. That only leaves a few hours for paint to be applied with enough time for it to set up before conditions become unfavorable.
These are all challenges of participating in dry dock in unfamiliar territory. The skill of this crew along with help from some of the local knowledge is sure to get us finished on time so that we can keep the journey going.
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.
