Hawai'i's voyaging canoes Hokule'a and Alingano Maisu, along with escort motorsailer Kama Hele, expect to reach Pohnpei today, their second landfall in Micronesia, a week after leaving Majuro in the Marshall Islands.

At midday yesterday, the canoes were about 100 miles east of Majuro. They were headed west and appeared on course to see the island as early as dawn today, if the weather is clear enough.

But the weather, generally, has not been clear.

For the voyagers, this more than 800-mile leg has been soggy, pure and simple. The canoes have fought through the doldrums, drenched by one squall after another for days on end, with little time even to dry out their foul weather gear. Yesterday was no exception. In her blog, crew member Ka'iulani Murphy said the crew has tried to make a game of the rain.

"Today was another wet, wet, wet day. Squalls would come here and there from late morning through early afternoon. We've been watching the gray walls of water behind us and guessing how long they'll take to get to us," she wrote on the Polynesian Voyaging Society's Web site.

The crews are catching fish, and eating fish in myriad ways.

"Most of us eat better out here than we do at home," Murphy said in an earlier blog. But there are not many choices and the canoe sailors, lacking ice and refrigeration, spend a lot of time thinking about food.

"In anticipation of getting to land possibly tomorrow, the guys are again talking about what we're going to eat when we get to land again. Ice cream sundaes, root beer floats, shave ice ... anything with ice," Murphy wrote.

Pohnpei, also called Ponape, is a volcanic island whose Mount Totolom, at close to 2,500 feet, is the highest spot in Micronesia.

In archaeological circles the island is known for its complexes of massive stone structures — especially Nan Madol, a series of some 90 man-made islands topped with stone temples and other structures, which are separated by canals.

The structures are built on a reef, and the buildings were assembled from massive basalt stones — some of them weighing tons — that were quarried on the main island and ferried to the islets of Nan Madol.

"We're all excited to meet the people there and see the island of Pohnpei and the incredible feat of mankind, Nan Madol," Murphy blogged.

The canoes will undergo major crew changes at Pohnpei, with new members flying in from Hawai'i and many of the current leg's crew departing.

Hokule'a skipper Bruce Blankenfeld, who has navigated the current leg, will turn over the helm to Nainoa Thompson, Hawai'i's best-known non-instrument navigator and president of the Polynesian Voyaging Society.

The canoes are expected to leave Pohnpei on Sunday, Hawai'i time. Polynesian Voyaging Society spokeswoman Kathy Thompson said they expect about a three-day passage to the island of Chuuk, also known as Truk — their next stop on the way to visit master navigator Mau Piailug on the island of Satawal.

The canoe Alingano Maisu will be delivered as a gift to Piailug, as thanks for sharing his knowledge of non-instrument navigation.

The 54-foot, double-hulled canoe was built by the Big-Island-based Na Kalai Wa'a Moku o Hawai'i with assistance from the entire Hawaiian voyaging community.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.