Rain and winds delay
departure of Hokule‘aThe crew prepares for a voyage
highlighting the northwest islands
The crew of the Hokule'a voyaging canoe waited out rainy weather in Kauai's Hanalei Bay yesterday and hoped to start their 1,200-mile journey through the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands early this morning.
"We're really socked in right now with rain, and you can't see very far," navigator-in-training Kaiulani Murphy said yesterday afternoon as she talked from her cell phone on board the Hawaiian voyaging canoe.
"Ideally, we would like to leave with the tradewinds," said Murphy, who has studied to be a navigator since her voyage on the canoe to Tahiti in 2000. She will help navigate the 20-day leg of the trip from Kauai to Kure, an atoll at the northwestern end of the Hawaiian archipelago.
The Hokule'a, its crew of 12 and its escort boat were scheduled to leave Friday but needed to sit out the weekend, waiting for better winds and weather.
Elisa Yadao, a spokeswoman for the Polynesian Voyaging Society, said "basically the wind has been coming from the north, which is where they are headed."
The Hokule'a Web site (www.pvs-hawaii.com) says the current voyage is part of a project called "Navigating Change," which is aimed at raising public awareness of the environmental decline in the Hawaiian Islands. On this voyage the canoe will sail to the remote northwestern islands, which contain 5,660 square miles of coral reefs that account for about 69 percent of all the coral reefs in the United States.
There are about 10 islands that support millions of nesting seabirds and the breeding grounds for endangered monk seals and threatened green sea turtles.
The Web site said, "The goal of Navigating Change is to motivate, encourage and challenge people to take action to improve the environmental conditions in their own back yards, especially as it pertains to coral reefs."
During the voyage, the Polynesian Voyaging Society will maintain a teleconferencing phone line. Three times each weekday, at 9, 9:45 and 10:30 a.m., the crew will call to talk to 70 public and private schools with 1,300 students from third grade to high school.