Wayfinding Hawaii
I just returned from a sailing trip in Hawaii aboard the Hōkūleʻa, a Polynesian double-hulled voyaging canoe. Our voyage — from the Big Island to Maui, Molokai and Oahu - was a tribute to the Satawalese Master Navigator Mau Piailug, who taught his knowledge of non-instrument navigation to a small group of Hawaiians in the 1970s, and passed away this summer. Navigating our vessel was one of the Hawaiians who “Papa Mau” first mentored. The Hōkūle‘a was launched in 1975, and has completed nine voyages to destinations in Micronesia, Polynesia, Japan, Canada, and the United States, all using ancient wayfinding techniques of celestial navigation. After our voyage, she went into dry dock for a year, to prepare for an around-the-world sail that begins in 2012.
My story will appear in the September 2011 issue of Islands Magazine.
Check out the photos here.
