The Hokule‘a and Hikianalia voyaging canoes Sunday completed their eight-day voyage to Papahanaumokuakea, giving five young navigators the opportunity to learn about voyaging and the cultural and ecological significance of the places they visited.
The two vessels returned to the Marine Education Training Center at Sand Island at 7:15 a.m. Sunday from their eight-day “Navigating the Kupuna Islands” training voyage to Nihoa, Mokumanamana and Lalo (French Frigate Shoals).
It was the second deep-sea training sail in preparation for the May “Moananuiakea Voyage,” a 42-month, 41,000-mile journey around the Pacific that will reach 46 countries and archipelagos, almost 100 indigenous territories and 345 ports.
The primary navigational challenge of the training voyage and navigators was between Niihau to Nihoa, where the navigators needed to use small islands as distinct targets. According to “pwo” navigator Nainoa Thompson, finding Nihoa from Niihau is similar to finding an island half the size of Diamond Head from Kailua-Kona in the middle of the open ocean.
“What we were looking for was not so much their navigation skills, but their ability to work as a team to work together to take care of each other. The values of caring were primary and they were extraordinary,” Thompson said Sunday in a release. “We saw what can be accomplished when young people come together in a unified way to be a team, to do things that are very extraordinary that many, many other people in the world can’t do.”
After sailing to Nihoa, the crew sailed to the island of Mokumanamana’s “spiritual line.” Out of respect for the wildlife on the island, the crew did not go ashore.
“The wildlife there is so sacred that every footprint counts when sometimes you make the wrong step and you crush shearwater burrows. So we, out of respect to life and nature at its best, we have chosen not to interfere with the living system that exists, up here in Papahanaumokuakea,” Thompson said.
The crew then sailed to Lalo, where they conducted the first underwater survey
of the area, in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, since Hurricane Walaka hit in 2018. They found both widespread coral destruction and the beginnings of regeneration, as well as the possible remains of a 19th-century shipwreck. The crew also observed wildlife around Lalo’s East Island.
“Papahanaumokuakea becomes our school. Because it’s left alone, we found that nature,” Thompson said. “Probably the most important ability for nature to renew itself is when we leave it alone.”
