With several pule (chants) to summon the spirit of island ancestors and numerous pushes from volunteers, Hawaii’s most renowned voyaging canoe slipped into the waters off Honolulu on Monday — and into a new frontier.
If all goes according to plan, the next time the 62-foot-long Hokule‘a is pulled back onto Hawaii soil will be in 2017 after completing its most daring sail yet: a voyage around the world.
The Hokule‘a, a longtime symbol of Hawaii’s cultural revival and ancient Polynesian sailing expertise, has spent the past 2 1⁄2 months in dry dock preparing for the journey. More than 100 volunteers logged thousands of hours sanding, lashing and varnishing the craft.
"She’s faster, she’s lighter, she’s stronger, she’s more watertight," Nainoa Thompson, president of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, said after Monday’s launch. "She’d have to be the best she’s ever been."
The canoe also turned 39 years old this past weekend after logging more than 150,000 miles across the Pacific.
Hokule‘a’s most recent dry-dock overhaul wasn’t just about keeping the crew safe as the boat enters unfamiliar waters, Thompson said. The work was also critical to pass the waa (canoe) to the next generation of navigators and way-finders, he said.
At a brief ceremony before the launch, master navigator and society Vice President Bruce Blankenfeld told about 70 volunteers and crew members that the canoe had left dry dock in shape to last another 30 years. The repairs included reinforcing one of the iako (crossbeams) to make the vessel sturdier.
Hokule‘a’s relaunch was originally scheduled for Friday, but concerns about the wind and its potential to damage the canoe as it docked led society officials to postpone it to Monday.
"First and foremost is the safety of our crew and the safety of our waa," Blankenfeld told the group Friday.
In May the Hokule‘a and its new escort canoe, the Hikianalia, will depart Hawaii for Tahiti to start the worldwide voyage, dubbed Malama Honua.
The next time Hokule‘a is set to come out of the water for repairs will be in New Zealand — probably in Auckland and sometime in January or February, PVS officials say.
The journey is expected to take four years and bring the canoes to at least 26 countries and 65 ports of call, across more than 45,000 nautical miles. A send-off for the vessels when they leave Oahu for Hawaii island is scheduled for May 17.
"Some of us have been training for this our whole lives," 32-year-old Hokule‘a crew member Kaleo Wong told the group Monday. "Exactly what our kupuna did for hundreds of years, we’re still doing today."
