Impacts of delay cost Hokule'a

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Science Writer

HANALEI BAY, Kaua'i — Hokule'a's crew hauled its anchor, shortened the lines on its mooring and prepared for departure yesterday — but the voyaging canoe didn't go.

"It's amazing the number of things that can keep you from sailing," said Capt. Nainoa Thompson.

The double-hulled canoe is 15 days overdue to leave on its voyage through the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Overcast skies have blocked the view of navigating stars, winds have blown from the wrong direction, and a series of low-pressure systems from the west have been responsible for much of the delay. One day was lost because of a shortage of seats on interisland aircraft to ferry the crew here.

Yesterday, it could have been the delay itself that was responsible for putting off the sailing.

An easterly trade wind filled in during a starry night over Hanalei, and was blowing at a steady 15 miles an hour in the morning.

"It's a beautiful wind," Thompson said. Not perfect for sailing to Nihoa, the first of the leeward islands, but perfectly adequate and the best the canoe has had since its original departure date, May 8.

But Thompson has had to scramble to fill the crew list with experienced sailors, as scheduling problems required several to drop off the trip. Both the Hokule'a and escort boat Kama Hele have lost crew who could no longer commit to the voyage. Many had taken vacation from jobs, and as two weeks of delay added to three weeks of voyage, some had no time left.

Also, the delays meant scrapping a plan to allow several of the crew to fly home midway through the voyage from the tiny airstrip at French Frigate Shoals and be replaced by sailors flying in. Among others, it meant watch commander Dennis Chun, a veteran sailor from Kaua'i, could not go. Thompson arranged for one of Hokule'a's stalwarts, Marquesan sailor Tava Taupu, to join the crew as watch commander.

Yesterday he found he needed to spend time with the crew on assignments and responsibilities. "We can't sail until we're ready, until it's pono," Thompson said.

Sailing master Bruce Blankenfeld said the term means a sense that things are right, proper, and all members of the expedition feel good about it. After all the changes, it was important to achieve pono before setting sail, he said.

Crew members set to sail this morning are Thompson, Blankenfeld, navigator Ka'iulani Murphy, Taupu, watch commander and videographer Na'alehu Anthony, watch commander Russell Amimoto, voyaging instructor Leimomi Dierks, cultural expert Keoni Kuoha, biologists Randy Kosaki and Kana Uchino, Fish and Wildlife Service educator Ann Bell, physician Cherie Shehata, and newspaper writer Jan TenBruggencate.

The escort boat crew includes Kawaiolimaikamapuna Hoe, Timmy Gilliom, Steve Garrett, Josh Dang, Kiyoshi Amimoto and Palani Wright.

The process of working with the crew was done before noon, but by then it was too late to meet the navigator's deadline of reaching at sunset a point on a line between Ni'ihau's Paniau peak and Nihoa, about 25 miles off Ni'ihau.

When Hokule'a visited Nihoa last year, with Thompson navigating, the canoe left that point at sunset, and sighted Nihoa at first light. Thompson said he now hopes to leave at first light to reach what he calls the Paniau Line at sunset, in hopes of an early-morning sighting of Nihoa.

Winds were light and easterly, however, which could slow the vessel's progress and result in landfall later in the day, when small islands are harder to spot.