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TOM FINNEGAN / TFINNEGAN@STARBULLETIN.COM Members of the Hawaiian Outrigger Canoe Voyaging Society and the crew of the Makane Olu readied their vessels yesterday for a week-long trip to the Northwest Hawaiian Islands that includes a 330-mile paddle from Nihoa to the French Frigate Shoals.

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Canoe voyage offers
link to history

NAWILIWILI, Kauai » Sixteen people will paddle a canoe a total of 70 hours and 330 miles nonstop between three Northwest Hawaiian Islands.

Why? To connect with the past and the future, the ocean and each other, say paddlers Matt Muirhead and Kimokeo Kapahulehua.

And, of course, for the adventure.

An international crew left Kauai yesterday with 16 paddlers, a brand-new canoe and heaps of supplies aboard their support vessel.

Each person will spend up to 30 hours paddling. After a trip to Nihoa aboard their support vessel -- the 96-foot, three-mast, Kaneohe-based Makane Olu -- the new canoe will be lowered into the water and to Mokumanamana and then to the French Frigate Shoals.

This trip is the fifth of seven voyages to link the whole Hawaiian archipelago by canoe. With trips from the Big Island to Nihoa already complete, it is hoped two more trips in coming years will complete the paddle, covering more than 1,000 nautical miles.

Kapahulehua is credited with coming up with the idea for the journey, but it did not start out that way. At first, Kapahulehua said, he wanted to link the major Hawaiian islands using a more traditional koa canoe. But the project, and the Hawaiian Outrigger Canoe Voyaging Society that formed out of it, has taken on a life of its own.

"It was a combination of things" that prompted the idea, Kapahulehua said as the crew readied the ship for departure yesterday. It included forming a link with the historical voyages of the past and educating future generations about Hawaiian ocean culture.

Muirhead said it is also to raise awareness of the fragile nature of the ecosystem in the uninhabited islands and, obviously, to paddle and to promote paddling.

They mingled with crew members from the Marimed Foundation, the owners of the Makane Olu, as the boat readied for departure yesterday afternoon.

Marimed supplied the only sailing school vessel based in the state, because "we're on the same mission" to promote Hawaiian culture and values, said Matt Claybaugh, president and CEO of Marimed Foundation. "We're one people, one ohana."

The foundation heard "these guys wanted to do something crazy," Claybaugh added, "and I said, 'Yeah, let's go.'"

The trip has also been supported by Kialoa Paddles, West Marine, Maui Jim, Da Kine, Paddle Me sportswear and Maui No Ka Oi Magazine.

The 16 paddlers, 15 men and one woman ranging in age from 23 to 58, include lifelong enthusiasts with many ocean voyages under their belt and relative novices with just a few years' experience, Muirhead said.

Paddlers came from as far away as New York, and New Zealand citizens living in Hawaii are also involved in the adventure.

"It's a multi-island, multistate endeavor," Muirhead said. "We are retracing the footsteps and routes of the ancient Polynesians."