Hokule‘a’s
25th-anniversary fete
slated for March

On Tuesday the canoe
left Rapa Nui on a
2,800-mile trip to Tahiti

Star-Bulletin staff

The 25th anniversary of the launching of the Hokule'a will be celebrated in March, with festivities planned for Kualoa Regional Park.

Since its initial launch, the Hokule'a has sailed all the major Polynesian migration routes. Its voyage to Rapa Nui, completed in October, was considered the most challenging.

Now, the double-hulled canoe is under way again. On Tuesday the canoe left Rapa Nui on a 22-day, 2,800-mile trip to Tahiti.

Yesterday, navigator Bruce Blankenfeld estimated the canoe had traveled 84 miles in the past 12 hours. The crew supplemented its food stores by catching a 15-pound ahi on Saturday and a 15- to 20-pound aku yesterday.

The 13-member crew is targeting the Marquesas Islands to avoid the dangerous reefs and atolls of the Tuamoto Archipelago.

After sighting the Marquesas, the canoe will continue without stopping to Rangiroa and then Tahiti.

The Hokule'a left Hilo for Rapa Nui via the Marquesas Islands and Mangareva on June 15. The crew sighted Rapa Nui on Oct. 8.

The public can track the progress of the Hokule'a on the World Wide Web at http://leahi.kcc.hawaii.edu/org/pvs/

Photographs from the Hokule'a are available at http://www.hokulea.net

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Hokule'a to Rapa Nui
Jun. 7, 1999
Rapa Nui, the Loneliest Island
Jun. 14, 1999