Advertiser staff writer Jan TenBruggencate served as a crewmember aboard Hokule'a during the voyaging canoe's trip through the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. He took questions from readers during the journey and answered them here.

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Q. What are the dimensions of the canoe?

A. Hokule'a's two hulls are 62 feet long, and it is about 14 feet from one outer edge to the other. Bunks in the hulls are about 5-foot-10 and there are five in each hull. The deck between the hulls is roughly 8 feet by 42 feet. Captain Nainoa Thompson estimates that the fully loaded canoe weighs 22,000 pounds.

Q. Has anyone gotten seasick?

A. Several crew members have had minor bouts. The most seriously affected has been Leimomi Dierks, who had her last bout while mixing up a wasabi sauce for fresh-caught mahimahi. She felt so sick she couldn't eat the fish. "I feel miserable, and I feel useless," she said. Ship doctor Cherie Shehata gave her motion sickness medication, and by late that night she was back at work and by morning she was munching leftover fish.

Q. Why do you guys sail between islands?

A. Hokule'a sailing master Bruce Blankenfeld said the sailing provides a connection with the ancestors who discovered these islands.

"We live on islands, separated by the ocean. To our forefathers, these ocean passages are roads. They are the way they got from one island to the next. We could fly, but this honors our ancestors, their knowledge and their way of life," he said.

There is also the exhilaration of setting sail on a voyaging canoe. It was displayed before the departure when Leimomi Dierks said her skin was tingling in anticipation of sailing. And when a crew member whooped as the first wave splashed over the canoe's sides. And in the way neophyte crew members rushed to tasks as they were assigned, grins splattered over sweating or wave-drenched wet faces.

For all those reasons and more, Hokule'a, one of the icons of the Hawaiian cultural renaissance, is back at sea.

Q. I was born on Kaua'i and am of Hawaiian descent. My question is. How does someone get selected to one of the voyages? How could I become one of the crewmembers?

A. Polynesian Voyaging Society officials say one of the most important factors they consider in selecting crew is a commitment to the canoe — a commitment demonstrated by working on and for it. For instance, many of this voyage's crew members spent hundreds of hours on weekends and days off when Hokule'a was last in drydock, lashing the canoe's parts together with an estimated 10 miles of cordage. There are other voyaging canoes being built, repaired or sailed in each of the four counties, and all of them can use willing volunteers. The best way to get into canoe voyaging is to become part of a voyaging canoe's "family."

Q. I lived in Honolulu 1972-1979 and I recall a voyage of the Hokule'a during that time period. How often is there a voyage of the Hokule'a? Do the destinations always follow their ancestors' journeys?

A. Hokule'a's voyages for the most part have gone to islands where Polynesians have gone before. There are some chants and other cultural references that suggest the actual routes the ancient navigators took — such as between Tahiti and Hawai'i. Other routes are inferred from the presence of Polynesians and other information. But Hokule'a, along with the voyaging canoe Hawai'iloa, has also visited the West Coast of North America, for which there is no strong tradition of pre-contact Polynesian visitation.

Q. Dear Jan, Is it possible to collect for me, a small sample of sand from a beach on Kure, Midway, French Frigate Shoals, Laysan, Nihoa, and Gardner Pinnacles? A 35mm film container size of each?

A. The short answer is that I can't. "You would need to be part of an endorsed research project" to be allowed to remove anything from the islands, said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service educator Ann Bell. Also, Gardner Pinnacles are rocky outcroppings that have no sand. At Nihoa, on which our crew is not authorized on this trip to land, the lone beach is entirely off-limits to humans because it is a popular resting place for endangered Hawaiian monk seals. When Hokule'a visited Nihoa last year, I saw 22 seals basking on the small beach at one time.

Q. How do you go to the bathroom on Hokule'a?

A. This may be the most frequently asked question, and new crewmembers say it's one of the hardest things to get used to. The short answer: You put on a harness and clip yourself to the boat before entering the screened bathing areas. There, you can either use a bucket or hang your bottom over the side of the canoe. Hokule'a carries biodegradable toilet paper, which goes over the side with the waste.

Q. How does Nainoa (Thompson) and crew navigate during the hours of darkness?

A. Sailing master Bruce Blankenfeld, who is an accomplished non-instrument navigator, said it's easier at night than in daylight. At night the stars, the moon and the planets all provide clues to where you are and in what direction you want to sail. When clouds block out the sky, navigators use the direction of the prevailing wind, and the direction of the prevailing swells is communicated to them through the movement of the canoe. Other clues, like the presence of certain birds, the shape, color and movement of clouds and other tips also aid navigators.

Q. Have you seen any endangered species on the ocean?

A. We've seen some turtles and we expect to see more at French Frigate Shoals, the primary nesting place for green sea turtles in this part of the Pacific. Hawaiian monk seals are common in the Northwestern — or Kupuna — Islands, and we have been warned to avoid interacting with them, so they don't become too accustomed to people, which can put them at risk from propellers and boat strikes. It's nearing the end of humpback season, but some humpbacks may cruise up along some of these islands before migrating back to Alaskan waters, so we may see some of those, too.

Q. How do you bathe on Hokule'a? Aren't you all salty?

A. Crewmembers bathe in an aft compartment of the canoe that has canvas privacy screens. They generally sit or crouch, and scoop ocean water from alongside the canoe using a bucket with a rope attached to its handle. We use salt-water-sudsing soap, and rinse with salt water. The canoe does not have the capacity to carry fresh water for bathing. If you dry off with a towel or pareu right away, most of the salt buildup is avoided. Crews welcome rain as a way to get a fresh water rinse.

Q. How much sleep are you getting at night?

A. Most of the crew is assigned to three watches, which run four hours on duty and eight hours off. As an example, I am on the 6 to 10 shift, meaning my watch steers and cares for the boat from 6 to 10 a.m. and from 6 to 10 p.m. While off-watch, crew members can sleep, read, write in journals, or relax and chat with other crew members. Those crewmembers can easily get as much as 8 hours of sleep daily, although normally not all at once. Navigators traditionally sleep very little while the canoe is underway. Nainoa has said he sometimes gets as little as an hour a day while navigating.

Q. Is being on Hokule'a like camping out?

A. In some ways, it is. Crewmembers generally use sleeping bags, sleep under a canvas tent-like hull cover and eat food prepared on a two-burner camp stove. But this camping spot is constantly moving, has the sound of the waves and calling seabirds. You can't get your exercise with a morning hike, but there's a lot of work to do to keep the this oceangoing campsite shipshape and sailing properly.

Q. How do you keep in touch with your family?

A. The short answer, Sheena, is that we don't. We are out of the range of cell phones, and while there are satellite telephones on board, they are very expensive to operate and the canoe is saving its limited power supplies for educational purposes — like talking to school groups, updating Web sites that are following the voyage, and getting The Honolulu Advertiser's reports out. When we're not transmitting, the phones are turned off to save power. However, there is a system by which families can get emergency messages to crewmembers by arranging shortwave radio calls to our escort boat, the sailing vessel Kama Hele, which the Kama Hele can relay to us when we are at anchor together, or via VHF radio when the boats are within visual range of each other.

Q. Is there artificial light on board?

A. The canoe has solar panels that charge a battery bank. The electricity is used to power legally required running lights at the masthead, the stern or back of the boat, and at the sides, red on the left and green on the right. The old incandescent lights have recently been replaced by bright LED or light-emitting diodes, which provide as much illumination with much less power demand.

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