A sleep break near Tern Island

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Science Writer

FRENCH FRIGATE SHOALS, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands — A young sea bird hitched a night-long ride on Hokule'a's stern from Mokumanamana to French Frigate Shoals, lifting its wings to gracefully fly off only as the voyaging canoe approached the reefs.

Hokule'a navigator Ka'iulani Murphy checks out a hitchhiking booby. To the left of the bird are a carved image and the satellite phone antenna dome. Jan TenBruggencate • The Honolulu Advertiser

While aboard the canoe, the booby alternately tucked its head into its back feathers, peered at the unfamiliar humans moving around on deck, and swung its beak in the brisk night wind.

Hokule'a ended its non-instrument navigation experiment after sailing two 150-mile-plus ocean channels to tiny islands. The voyages once more proved the effectiveness of Nainoa Thompson's system of navigation, and proved again that it is a system others can learn.

Yesterday morning, crew members kept watch from the bow for coral heads, using charts, dividers and two handheld global positioning system units to pilot through the reefs.

Once it tucked into the lee of the eastern end of the French Frigate Shoals reef, Hokule'a got relief from a large running swell. The 62-foot vessel surfed the waves and occasionally swooped off course as it slid down faces longer than the canoe.

In the lee, it picked up a good wind and cruised at 10 mph. It steered around the southern side of La Perouse Pinnacle, a rock outcropping south of the island's main reefs, which is all that remains of the once-tall volcanic formation.

La Perouse Pinnacle, the volcanic remnant of the island that evolved into French Frigate Shoals, viewed from along Hokule’a’s rail. Jan TenBruggencate • The Honolulu Advertiser

Hokule'a sailed to an anchorage about a mile from Tern Island, dropped one anchor off the right, or starboard, side and another off the port side. The escort boat Kama Hele tied up to an existing mooring nearby. Some crew members chose to sleep on board and others at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service center on Tern, a former Coast Guard station that has a 3,000-foot coral runway. One crew member Na'alehu Anthony, was to leave the vessel and take an empty seat on a chartered Fish and Wildlife Service flight. That leaves a crew of 12 on the canoe.

The vessel was to spend last night and tonight at the atoll, visiting with and perhaps working with marine researchers studying protecting sea birds, monk seals, turtles and others of the multitude of creatures that inhabit these islands and reefs.

One thing the crew was ready for was normal sleep. Life on the canoe is not constant work, but it involves being awake much of the time and at inconsistent hours depending on the canoe's needs.

Someone's shift might be over as the canoe reaches an island, but the whole crew is expected to participate in the anchoring and settling-in process, and then a crew member might be assigned to anchor watches. When the canoe sets sail in the morning, everybody's involved again. As much as six hours of steady sleep is a luxury.

After using entirely non-instrument navigation to find Nihoa and Mokumanamana islands, the Hokule’s crew uses modern technique — including satellite positioning gear, charts and plotting tools — to find a route through the coral reefs of French Frigate Shoals. Clockwise from left, Leimomi Dierks, Nainoa Thompson, Bruce Blankenfeld and Kanako Uchino. Jan TenBruggencate • The Honolulu Advertiser

Most crew members have other duties besides their shifts sailing the canoe. Some have developed specialties in cooking meals, notably sailing master Bruce Blankenfeld and master fish-cooker Russell Amimoto, whose nickname is the "Iron Chef." Blankenfeld and Amimoto are also the canoe's main fishermen.

A valued crew member who asked that his identity be withheld is sometimes called "Snack Daddy," for the breadth of his stores of sweets.

Several crew members participate in daily satellite radio interviews with schoolchildren.

Until his departure from Tern Island, electrical wizard Anthony kept track of battery power, wiring, solar charging and radio equipment. In his final hours on the canoe, he was frantically giving lessons to other crew members in how to take care of the equipment.

Another valued skill on board is making do, which can run from converting duct tape into all manner of things, to a successful invention of a way to install grommets in a sail when no specialized equipment is available. The system involved a Swiss Army multipurpose tool, a hammer, a screwdriver, a wide chisel and a pair of pliers.

Tomorrow morning, the vessel is to leave early for the next speck of dry land up the Hawaiian archipelago, Gardner Pinnacles — two rocky landfalls, the largest of which is only 300 yards long. But they are surrounded by 600,000 acres of coral reef habitat with at least 27 species of corals.

Advertiser science writer Jan TenBruggencate is a crewmember aboard Hokule'a during the voyaging canoe's trip through the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. He will be sending back regular dispatches via satellite.