Training ship makes landfall

A tugboat escorts the Marimed Foundation's new training ship as it approaches Pier 9 at Aloha Tower. The 96-foot, three-masted ship traveled 7,000 miles over two months in its journey from Jacksonville, Fla. Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer

The tall masts and billowing sails that once added a touch of romance to Kane'ohe Bay and adventure to the lives of troubled Hawai'i youth will return soon, borne above Marimed Foundation's newest sailing and training vessel, the Hilda.

The 96-foot, three-masted ship, purchased in Florida last year, arrived in Honolulu Harbor yesterday, nearly two weeks late because of high seas and Kona winds that held it about 600 miles off the island chain.

Hilda, to be renamed and blessed later this month, was welcomed by Marimed's chanting cadets, blasts of water from a fireship and a flyby from rainbow-colored and red, white and blue doves.

Capt. Dan Davies and his crew were happy to make landfall after their 7,000-mile, two-month-long trip.

"The pier felt a little spongy when I stepped onto it," Davies said as he watched the Hilda bob in the harbor behind him. "I felt like my foot was going right through the asphalt."

Davies, whose parents raised him at sea from the time he was a few months old, spent five months refitting the Hilda in Jacksonville, Fla. Then he and his crew sailed the ship down the Atlantic coast of Central America, through the Panama Canal and across the Pacific before being delayed by winds and the 20-foot swells that crashed O'ahu's North Shore over the holidays.

Davies has worked for years for Marimed Foundation, a Hawai'i-based charity that offers seagoing adventures to at-risk youth through a program called Kailana, or calm seas. He was chief mate aboard the organization's last ship, the Tole Mour, before being named skipper of the Hilda.

Casey Leitch, a 17-year-old cadet who hopes to sail with Davies soon, welcomed the captain ashore, then stood and watched the Hilda roll next to the pier.

"She looks a little rocky, and I may get sick," Leitch said. "But I want to learn to sail. I've never really got to do it before."

Spencer Bishop, a 22-year-old crew member who helped bring Hilda to Hawai'i, made his first Marimed-Kailana sailing cruise at age 16.

"I hated it," Bishop said yesterday. "I was a juvenile delinquent and I didn't want to be there. It wasn't until later that I realized it was a great experience."

The realization eventually led him to pursue a career at sea. Bishop had just graduated from the Chapman School of Professional Seamanship in Florida when Marimed officials contacted him and asked him to help Davies bring Hilda home.

Bishop said he thought he might have a message for Leitch and the other cadets who came to welcome the crew and would soon begin their own sailing adventures.

"I'd tell them to hold on to their dreams and goals," Bishop said. "My goal was to sail around the world, and as of right now I think I'm already about halfway there."

Reach Karen Blakeman at 525-2430 or at kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.