The Polynesian voyaging canoe Hokule`a will be making what may be its most ambitious voyage yet in a course beyond Polynesia and to Japan next year.
The Polynesian voyaging canoe Hokule`a is currently in dry dock. New coats of paint are being applied to its hull. It is part of the preparations for its next voyage.
It is scheduled to leave Hawai`i on a journey that will take it first to the Marshall islands, then to Micronesia, and then to Japan, where it will retrace a journey taken by King David Kalakaua in 1880.
“It’s like completing this enormous circle of learning, and in that way, it’s bridging across cultural barriers,” Polynesian Voyaging Society Master Navigator Nainoa Thompson said.
It is a circle of learning that began with Hokule`a’s first Master Navigator Mau Piailug of Micronesia, where the voyagers will give him a gift of his own canoe, the Maisu.
The voyage is just the beginning of the canoe’s possible future in educating Hawai`i keiki.
“Not just student navigators, but now, needing to support the growth of navigation, and looking at the importance of our potential to support education in Hawaii,” Thompson said.
He said the voyage should begin sometime at the beginning of January.
If all goes according to plan, the voyage of Hokule`a will take it over 7,000 miles over a course of 85 days.
