NAWILIWILI — A team of 16 the Hawaiian Outrigger Canoe Voyaging Society (HOCVS) paddlers departed Monday afternoon from Nawiliwili Harbor headed for the remote, isolated Northwest Hawaiian Islands chain. Na Mokupuni Na Kupuna is the name of the expedition. Its
NAWILIWILI — A team of 16 the Hawaiian Outrigger Canoe Voyaging Society (HOCVS) paddlers departed Monday afternoon from Nawiliwili Harbor headed for the remote, isolated Northwest Hawaiian Islands chain.
Na Mokupuni Na Kupuna is the name of the expedition. Its team members’ goal is to paddle from Nihoa Islet to the Tern Island / French Frigate Shoal area, a distance of about 350 miles. Estimated time of the paddle is 65 hours.
Two eight-paddler teams paddling a six-man outrigger canoe have been formed, and they are to alternate each hour, paddling the yellow outrigger canoe specially rigged for the journey. The canoe was blessed at the Kaiola Canoe Club in Niumalu over the weekend.
The paddle is a continuation of last year’s 165-mile paddle from Hanalei to Nihoa. Paddler and voyage organizer Kendall Struxness of Princeville is again aboard and paddling.
In June the crew paddled from the Hale‘iwa small boat harbor on the North Shore of O‘ahu to Nawiliwili as a warm-up for the Nihoa-Tern Island paddle.
Providing the support vessel critical to the success of the expedition is the Marimed Foundation.
The foundation’s Makani Olu, a 95 foot sail/motor yacht out of Kane‘ohe, O‘ahu, is transporting the crew and serving as escort vessel.
Expected arrival time at Nihoa is around dawn today, with the sailing yacht and crew scheduled to return by next Monday or Tuesday following the completion of the voyage.
According to a report on www.ocpaddler.com posted by teammember Matt Muirhead, the paddle begins with the launching of the canoe at Nihoa Islet to being a continuous day and night paddle to Necker Island (known as Mokumanamana in the Hawaiian language) a distance of 150 miles. Then the teams continue on to French Frigate Shoals a distance of 145 miles from Necker.
The HOCVS crew is made up of five men and one woman for this paddle. Two crew members are from Santa Cruz Ca., one from New York and the rest from Hawai‘i, Muirhead reported. At its core is an experienced group of long-distance paddlers plus educational experts in plant and marine life, as well as well-known Hawai‘i photographer Ron Dahlquist for photography and documentary support.
The www.ocpaddler.com report gives the motive behind the epic paddle: “The purpose of the HOCVS is to perpetuate through education and experience the Hawaiian culture of traditional long distance outrigger canoe voyaging, upholding a stewardship and an accord with nature, while strengthening the cultural and spiritual connections to the Hawaiian islands, and experience the harmony, strength and respect that arises when men and women of all ages paddle a canoe towards a common goal.”
In October 2004 the organization put together a paddling team of 13 men and one woman in a six-person canoe who paddled to Nihoa from Hanalei Bay in 28 hours.
In June, Struxness said the society is retracing the voyage of ancient Polynesians who traveled by sea in Hawaiian waters long before Captain Cook arrived off Waimea in 1778.
He said so far the crew has paddled in legs and at various times from the Big Island as far as Nihoa. Nihoa marks the beginning of the Northwest Hawaiian Islands, which stretch over 1000 miles from there to tiny Kure Atoll, the last spec of land in the northwest corner of Hawai‘i, about 60 miles west of Midway Island.
Provisioners for the voyage include Makaweli Poi, who provided 30 pounds of poi, and Waimea Brewing Company, who provided all the food for the trip.
Also aboard the canoe is a conch shell brought to Kaua‘i from Elbow Key in the Bahamas by Princeville Resident Alan Fayé. The key is one of the easternmost islands off the west shore of the Atlantic Ocean.
