The crew of 16 paddlers who stroked Northwest Hawaiian Islands paddlers who stroked from Nihoa Islet some 350 miles-plus to Necker Island in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands arrived home Sunday morning. The members of the Hawaiian Outrigger Canoe Voyaging Society
The crew of 16 paddlers who stroked Northwest Hawaiian Islands paddlers who stroked from Nihoa Islet some 350 miles-plus to Necker Island in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands arrived home Sunday morning.
The members of the Hawaiian Outrigger Canoe Voyaging Society departed from Nawiliwili Harbor on Monday afternoon with plans to paddle some 350 miles from Nihoa to French Frigate Shoals.
On Wednesday, the crew aboard Makani Olu (the expedition’s sail and motor escort vessel) turned around at Necker, an island also known as Mokumanamana, because the ship burned more fuel than expected due to light winds sailing from Nawiliwili to Nihoa early last week.
Makani Olu and the expedition crew arrived Nawiliwili around 11:15 a.m. yesterday, according to a report from Alan Fayé of Princeville, who spent Sunday morning at Nawiliwili waiting for the arrival of the vessel and crew.
“All (are) in great spirits,” Fayé said, with all saying it was a “once-in-a-lifetime trip.”
The crew’s outrigger canoe, Ke Alaka‘i O Ko‘u Mau Kupuna, was offloaded and paddled away to its home base at Kaiola Canoe Club at Niumalu.
The family of team leader Kimokeo Kapahulehua of the Kaiola Canoe Club presented all 21 on the trip with a ti lei and hugs.
“The total distance traveled, round trip, comes to about 700 miles, of which 190 miles were paddling from Nihoa to Mokumanamana,” Fayé reported to The Garden Islandin an e-mail.
“The paddling part took 32 and a half hours. The original distance for the paddling segment was expected to be 165 miles, but somehow, this distance ‘stretched,’ and additional 25 extra miles (were registered).
“They all seem to say the stretch is a mystery,” Fayé said.
