Leg 1: Crew departs Hilo heading toward new experiences, unfamiliar waters

Crews spent the voyage’s inaugural year reconnecting with communities across Polynesia as the Hokule‘a prepared to leave the Pacific Ocean for the first time in its nearly 40-year history.

The canoe departed Hilo on May 30, 2014, launching the international voyage. Its apprentice navigators passed their first big test 17 days and 2,400 miles later when they sighted the small atoll of Rangiroa, “pulling it from the ocean,” as Pacific voyagers say, en route to Tahiti.

The Hokule‘a then made its way across French Polynesia and the Cook Islands.

“All the stops have been special experiences,” Maui waterman Archie Kalepa blogged as the canoe visited the crystalline waters of Moorea, Raiatea, Tavaa, Bora Bora and other scenic stops.

“In each place we have been, the chants and mele remind us of who we are as people of the Pacific and how strong our collective mana is throughout Polynesia,” Kalepa wrote.

Weeks later, in Apia, Samoa, its crews met with then-United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. He delivered to them a “message in a bottle” that carried his pledge to work toward “a more sustainable future.”

Starting in November, the Hokule‘a and Hikianalia spent six months in New Zealand (also traditionally called Aotearoa) to wait out the hurricane season. They sailed around the scenic coasts there and strengthened friendships with the nation’s indigenous Maoris — bonds they forged during the Hokule‘a’s 1985 Voyage of Rediscovery.

In December 2014 voyage organizers announced a major course shift as they prepped for the unfamiliar Indian Ocean. The Hikianalia would return to Hawaii and be replaced by a motorized sailboat, the Gershon II, which could tow the Hokule‘a much longer distances and faster in an emergency.