Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 24, Number 2, 1 February 2007 — "Ku Holo Mau" voyage update [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

"Ku Holo Mau" voyage update

After lengthy delays due to high winds and a false start because of a cracked steering paddle, the voyaging canoes Hōkūle'a and Alingano Maisu finally departed Kealakekua Bay for the Marshall Islands on lan. 23 in the first leg of the voyage dubbed "Ku Holo Mau - Sail On, Sail Always, Sail Forever." The venerable Hōkūle'a is accompanying the new eanoe Alingano Maisu to the Micronesian island of Satawal, where it will be presented as a gift to grandmaster navigator Mau Piailug, who brought the lost art of traditional navigation back to Hawai'i. The Alingano Maisu was built for Mau over the last several years by the Hawai'i Island voyaging society Nā Kalai Wa'a Moku o Hawai'i The first leg of the journey, to the Marshallese capital of Majuro, is about 2,200 nautical miles. The voyage will then take the canoes to Kosrae, Ponape, Chuuk, Pulap and Satawal, where the Alingano Maisu will be presented to Piailug. Then the canoes will proceed to the islands of Woleai, Uliīhi, Yap and Palau, after whieh the Alingano Maisu will return to Yap, its permanent home. Hōkūle'a will then sail on alone to Okinawa and lapan in the second portion of the journey, dubbed "Ku Holo Lā Komohana - Sail On to the Western Sun." The voyage will honor the ties between lapan and Hawai'i and the historic journey of King David Kalākaua to Yokohama in 1881, whieh lead to the start of Iapanese immigration to Hawai'i. To follow an online blog of the voyage, visit pvshawaii.squarespace.com.

On the morning of the canoes' Jan. 23 departure from Kealakekua Bay, the senior wayfinders gather. Left to right: Polynesian Voyaging Society President Nōinoa Thompson, who will navigate Hōkūle'a on the second leg of the Micronesia voyage; Milton "Shorty" Bertelmann, captain of the Alingano Maisif, Bruce Blankenfeld, captain/navigator of Hōkūle'a on the voyage's first leg; and Chadd Paishon, navigator of the Alingano Maisu and executive director of Nō Kōlai Wa'a Moku o Hawai'i. - Pholo: Courtesy of the Polynesian Voyaging Society