Crew members aboard the Hokule‘a performed a traditional awa ceremony on Friday to mark the canoe’s traverse over the equator on its way back to Hawaii.

Ten days into the final international leg of Hokule‘a’s three-year Malama Honua (“Care for the Earth”) Worldwide Voyage, the crew paid close attention to the canoe’s position relative to its surroundings to track the precise moment when it entered the equatorial crossing point — “piko o wakea” in Hawaiian.

To mark the crossing, crew members took turns placing stones that represented their home and family into the water, establishing what master navigator Bruce Blankenfeld hopes will be a new tradition for practitioners of traditional Polynesian voyaging. The canoe is expected to return to Hawaii on June 17.