It was a sweet homecoming last week onshore at Sand Island for the voyaging canoes Hokule‘a and Hikianalia, completing a 2,500-mile voyage to Tahiti and back. The Polynesian Voyaging Society programs have been an honored tradition for Hawaii for decades, with the circumnavigation of the Pacific next up in 2023.

Elsewhere, Honolulu also was a stopoff for a very different sort of ocean vessel: a megayacht allegedly tied to a Russian oligarch. Not so much honor, perhaps, but another point of interest on the many- splendored waterfront.