HONOLULU---Could the Morning Light team find Hawaii without 21st century navigational gadgetry when they sail the Transpacific Yacht Race next July?

After this Thanksgiving weekend they'd stand a fair chance of doing it the way the ancient Polynesians did. The 15 young men and women will spend Friday and Saturday sailing the canoe Hokule'a on day sails out of Honolulu learning the old system from the current master, Nainoa Thompson, and one of their own crew members, Mark Towill, 18, of Kaneohe.

The original plan was to sail from the island of Maui to Oahu via Molokai, but a prospect of adverse weather prompted a change. Instead, they'll sail the 62- foot double-hulled canoe offshore out of the Marine Education Training Center on Sand Island.

Thompson learned the art of natural navigation using the stars by night and the sun, wind and waves by day from Mau Piailug of Satawal, Micronesia and became the first Hawaiian to navigate without any instruments in more than 600 years.

Over three decades Hokule'a has sailed 110,000 miles around the Pacific, and in January Thompson will guide yet another expedition back to Mau's home island to present him with a new voyaging canoe, then continue on to Japan before returning to Hawaii next summer.

Thompson, a disciple of Mau who heads the Polynesian Voyaging Society, recently told the Honolulu Advertiser, "He is the constant mentor and leader and support system all these years in our quest to relearn who we are by knowing who we were."

Towill, a senior at Punahou High School, hopes his Morning Light teammates will pick up on that native point of view "and gain a better sense of what Hawaii's all about and how important the canoe is to Hawaiian culture. That will make it that much more special when we come across the finish line [in the Transpac next summer]. I've had some wonderful experiences on Hokule'a and it's impacted my life."

In a letter to his Morning Light teammates Towill noted that "Hawaiians trace their roots back to Tahiti, and [Hokule'a's] purpose was to prove that this theory of migration from Tahiti to Hawaii was possible. Polynesian navigation involves a cognitive viewpoint, where the navigator sees the canoe as stationary and turns it in the direction of his destination and then brings the island to the canoe. Mau navigated the canoe without any navigational instruments, and successfully pulled Tahiti out of the sea." 

Thompson started teaching the navigation skills to Towill and other Hawaiian youngsters this year and they tested their skills sailing from the island of Kaua'i to Ka'ula, a tiny uninhabited islet about 100 miles to the southwest.  

"We navigated Hokule’a without any assistance from Kaua’i to Ka’ula," Towill said. "As a team, we successfully pulled Ka’ula out of the sea. We got on the canoe as friends and by the time it was over we left as family. It brought us together because on the canoe trust is a key thing.

"We were assigned to groups, and when our time frame was up we had to explain to the next group that based on certain information we think we're here. It took trust to fall asleep and know they were going to hold things on track. That whole trust issue is going to be crucial to our Morning Light sail, as well." 

Following this event the crew members will return to Hawaii in January to start training on their Transpac boat, the Transpac 52 Morning Light, with the prospect of being the youngest crew ever to sail the race. At race time, the average age of the 15 will be 21.2 years, a full year under the record.

Digital stills and digital video clips of their Thanksgiving experience will be available for download from Nov. 23 at www.papahui.com

More information:
     www.pacifichighproductions.com/

Polynesian Voyaging Society:
     pvs.kcc.hawaii.edu/

MEDIA CONTACT

Rich Roberts

(310) 835-2526

Click here for digital stillsand
digital video clips available
for download from Nov. 23
 

Hokule'a