The Hokule'a, shown here in silhouette on Maunalua Bay, remains at anchor in Hanalei Bay. The crew had been scheduled to leave Saturday on a voyage to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands but has been delayed.
Hokule‘a crew anticipates
departure on SundayUnfavorable weather continues
to postpone the voyage to Midway
LIHUE >> The Polynesian voyaging canoe Hokule'a remains at anchor in Hanalei Bay where it has been stranded since Saturday when it was scheduled to leave on a 20-day cruise of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
"The crew is on call for a tentative departure on Sunday," Hokule'a navigator Ka'iulani Murphy said yesterday. "They're scheduled to come back to Kauai on Saturday."
The 12-member crew, all volunteers and most from Oahu, went back to their regular jobs after a meeting Wednesday in Hanalei.
The voyage has been plagued by either the wrong winds or no winds at all. On Saturday an unseasonable northwest wind kept the canoe in port. The following day, the wind died entirely.
The National Weather Service is forecasting calm winds for at least the next six days with no return of tradewinds anywhere in sight.
Murphy said the Hokule'a sails best with the wind blowing abeam, or across the canoe's path. It actually moves slower if the wind is behind it.
The canoe will travel in a northwest direction with the northeast tradewinds blowing across it.
"It can sail about one-third of the wind speed. So, 15 to 20 knots is really ideal," Murphy said. A knot, or nautical mile, is 1.15 statute miles.
Enticing northeast winds blew the last two days in the mornings on Kauai but died by early afternoon.
Once the voyage begins, the Hokule'a will make its way along the island chain, unpopulated except for a few biology research stations. The plan is to switch crews at Midway, the former Navy base now operated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, where a charter jet will bring in a new crew to take the canoe on to Johnston Island and home.
