NAWILIWILI — An almost-all-Kaua‘i crew will be aboard Hokule‘a when the Polynesian Voyaging Society sailing canoe leaves Nawiliwili Small Boat Harbor for O‘ahu Friday night. She won’t have Dennis Chun of Lihu‘e aboard, who captained the boat during last weekend’s
NAWILIWILI — An almost-all-Kaua‘i crew will be aboard Hokule‘a when the Polynesian Voyaging Society sailing canoe leaves Nawiliwili Small Boat Harbor for O‘ahu Friday night.
She won’t have Dennis Chun of Lihu‘e aboard, who captained the boat during last weekend’s run from O‘ahu to Kaua‘i. He has another obligation on Kaua‘i this weekend, he said.
Chun was shuffling his two-sided paper with names and numbers of potential crew members Wednesday at the harbor, trying to put together a crew for the return sail.
John Kruse, who was aboard Hokule‘a during her maiden voyage in 1976, will be captain for the return sail Friday. Also aboard will be Billy Richards, another veteran of several Hokule‘a voyages, said Chun.
On Wednesday, children and teachers from the Waipa Summer Program and Kawaikini Public Charter School were touring the vessel after greeting the canoe and crew with Hawaiian chants of welcome and requests to board the canoe, which were greeted with the familiar “e komo mai,” or “come in.”
The Kaua‘i crew for the O‘ahu-to-Kaua‘i sail included Chun, Kruse, Richards, Kawai Warren, Kaimi Hermosura, Mike Soong, Mark Peru, Iolani Kauhane, Jimmy Fujita, Keala Kai, Malia Dowling, Maile Neff, Terry Hee, Leilani Josselin and Kaili Chandler-Pu‘ulei. Tomoki Oku, a master sailor from Japan, also accompanied the crew.
The Kaua‘i-to-O‘ahu crew has yet to be finalized, Chun said.
Likely aboard the return trip will be Kai, already identified as a crew member for the Hawai‘i-to-Palmyra leg that will start the Hokule‘a’s around-the-world voyage in 2012.
On Wednesday, Josselin led the tour of the school and summer program participants, explaining how crew members navigate using stars, currents, winds, movements of seabirds and other traditional techniques. She also covered how crew members sleep, cook, eat and use the bathroom while the craft is at sea.
Kruse, a county Finance Department employee, voyager and one of the forces behind the ongoing construction of Kaua‘i’s sailing canoe, Namahoe, said Hokule‘a (the Hawaiian word for the North Star) is being sailed by crew members training for the Hokule‘a’s upcoming around-the-world sail.
The Hokule‘a is available for free public tours during most daylight hours until she departs Friday night.
The around-the-world sail is slated for 2012, the same year all six Hawaiian voyaging canoes are scheduled to sail to Tahiti together, said Kruse.
The Namahoe (the Hawaiian word for “twins,” as the craft has two hulls), still under construction at Nawiliwili, is expected in the water by the end of this year and is anticipated to make the 2012 run to Tahiti, he said.
Namahoe will journey beyond Tahiti, with the hope of making it all the way to Aotearoa, New Zealand, Kruse said.
All of the canoes are expected to sail using traditional, non-electronic navigational techniques.
The Polynesian Voyaging Society Web sites are pvshawaii.squarespace.com and pvs.kcc.hawaii.edu.
