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Thousands to gather for historic Hokulea homecoming

The Hawaiian voyaging canoe, Hōkūle'a, set out on a trip around the world in 2013 to promote traditional sailing techniques and marine conservation.  [Photo: 'Oiwi Tv / Kaipo Ki'aha]  Hokule'a, Hawaiian canoe, makes historic home return
Decades ago, it was just a dream. Then, it became a challenge.

MAGIC ISLAND (HawaiiNewsNow) — On Saturday, Hokulea's unprecedented sail around the world will become a momentous chapter in the history of Polynesian voyaging.

Some 50,000 people are expected to gather at Magic Island for the double-hulled sailing canoe's return. They'll greet the vessel, officially a "state treasure," with chants and cheers — and its crew members with lei and hugs.

During her three-year journey around the globe, her crew using only ancient navigating techniques that employ the sun, stars, waves and seabirds, Hokulea traveled more than 40,000 nautical miles and docked at 150 ports. She stopped in Tahiti and Brazil, in South Africa and New York City, in Cuba and the nation's capital.

All along the way, her crew sought to share the journey's message — Malama Honua, to care for the earth — and learn more about how communities in just about every corner of the globe are trying to live more sustainably and look more seriously at their impact on the planet.  

“The heart of all of this is exploration,” said Bruce Blankenfeld, a master navigator and the voyaging director for the Hokulea’s worldwide voyage. “There is so much to learn, the big quantum leaps in knowledge happens when people look outside of the box.”

Blankenfeld has sailed the Hokulea for thousands of miles, and says the canoe’s ohana extends far beyond the crew members — to friends and family, to fellow navigators, and to all those lives touched in ports around the world.

“The larger community being a part of us that’s a huge thing,” Blankenfeld said. “There is huge mana in that, there is huge love in that, and that’s what all of this is about.”

A journey, years in the making

Hokulea's worldwide voyage took more than six years to plan and more than two years of intensive crew training.

Lehua Kamalu, of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, said preparations for the historic trip were downright grueling.

"We had so many meetings with meteorologists, NOAA, many folks at the university -- what kind of weather can we anticipate," she said.

"All those years were constantly trying to think through the different scenarios -- what were the crew going to look like, how should they be trained, what kind of weather situations would we be approaching?"

Apprentice Navigator Jenna Ishii said research also touched on security issues, including piracy and regional violence.

"We actually flew to places like Australia, South Africa, and place we had no connections with to make sure that the first time Hokulea arrived was not the first time they heard about us," she said.

Added Miki Tomita, the society's Learning Center director: "We had this two-tiered plan of canoe safety and exploring the stories around the world. We generated a number of different contingency plans and best possible plans and also along the way gave ourselves some flexibility."

There were 31 legs to the global voyage, each lasting anywhere from three to eight weeks with more than 250 crew members taking part.

Crews for the Hokulea and partner vessel Hikianalia rotated out 12 at a time at each major port of call.

The voyaging canoes are wind-powered and Hokulea was being guided strictly by ancient Polynesian wayfinding.

Ishii said the conditions were at times trying or dangerous.

But then there the moments she savored.

"The most emotional part of navigating voyaging is when you're on Hokulea at night time and your looking up, it's a clear sky, and those stars are your friends, and you know that the navigators of the past used them to find their way and they're the same stars we use to find our way as well," she said.

A wayfinding renaissance

When Hokulea makes its historic return home Saturday, she'll be joined by several other Polynesian voyaging canoes from around the Pacific. They'll have traveled from Tahiti, Fa'afaite, New Zealand and Okeanos.

Read more at Hawaii News Now