At dawn today, Thompson stood with his canoe officers on a bluff at Prince-ville, overlooking the sea. The sea was calm, there was a light breeze coming off the lane and the distant horizon was a crisp, clear line.

"That clean line means there’s no wind out there. If there were, it would be obscured by what Mau calls 'smoke,’ " Thompson said, referring to his navigation teacher, Mau Piailug.

Without enough wind to sail, this morning’s departure was put off, but Thompson said he expects a northeast wind to fill in later in the day. "If the wind comes, we go," he said, alerting the crew to be ready for possible sailing at sunset.

"The ability to survive at sea is about making good judgments about nature," Thompson said.

The canoe’s crew members endured a fourth day of delay of their voyage to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, but spirits lifted with clearing skies and the return of the tradewind pattern.

The northeast trades, which are the most common weather condition in the Islands, permit an easy sail up to the northern end of the Hawaiian archipelago, which some call the leeward islands and others the kupuna or ancestral islands. The northwestern end of the chain is much older than the main islands, and it contains archaeological evidence of habitation that had ended long before European contact.

The trades are critical to the success of the canoe’s voyaging and navigational mission, and those are important to the educational mission — linking the use of traditional Polynesian seafaring techniques with a message of caring for the environment on the lands the early Hawaiians first discovered.

Sixty-seven classrooms from across the state and in the Mainland and Samoa have signed up to make voice contact with the crew during the voyage. The first series of calls yesterday, and today to schools on O’ahu and in Samoa, were to have been made en route between Nihoa and Mokumanamana Islands, but instead were placed from Hanalei.

Canoe sail master Bruce Blankenfeld said the kids asked good questions.

"One question two different groups asked was, we understand about navigating by stars, but how do you navigate in the daytime? I told them the stars are celestial objects, but so are the sun and the moon. In daytime, we can use the sun and sometimes the moon, and the winds, swells and clouds all play a role," he said.

Thompson has been updating crew members during meetings several times each day. He said waiting for proper conditions is a part of the voyaging tradition. Hokule’a waited 28 days to leave New Zealand for Tonga in 1985 and 21 days to leave Rangiroa in French Polynesia for Hawai'i in 1987.

"This is part of the message, too," he said. "We wait for the right weather. That’s what our ancestors did. We could use GPS (satellite navigation gear) and sail in almost any conditions, but what does that do to our mission?

"Every other boat in the ocean does that. Then how would we be different from them?"

A persistent weather front knocked out the tradewinds over the weekend, enveloping Hanalei Bay in a dark, wet gloom. Frustration with the weather and the delays was directed into work on the canoe and off. Blankenfeld took his time painstakingly and securely lashing a basket containing dishwashing gear. Crewmembers Ann Bell and 'Aulani Wilhelm worked the phones, exploring options in the event further delays developed.

On shore, ship’s doctor Cherie Shehata was busy. She ordered watch captain Kaleo Wong to get some rest to help him overcome an infection and gave him medicine for his symptoms. She monitored Bell’s cough. She herself was recovering from a cold or flu and took a midday nap.