Preparations are underway as the Polynesian Voyaging Society announced Hōkūleʻa and Hikianalia will resume the Moananuiākea Voyage, tentatively departing from Mauliola (Sand Island) for Hilo on May 17.
Prior to departure, PVS invites the community to a blessing and send-off at 3 p.m. May 16 at the Marine Education Training Center at Mauliola. Supporters can bring lei and aloha for the canoes and crew before they embark on their three-year journey. The event will also include voyage education activities, speakers and music.
On Saturday, the two double-hulled voyaging canoes will then sail to Hilo to engage with the community while making final preparations and awaiting favorable weather to resume the four-year journey around the Pacific Ocean.
Weather permitting, the crew will depart Hilo on May 29 or 30, heading to French Polynesia where communities will welcome the canoes and crew back to Hawaii’s ancestral home to honor Hōkūleʻa’s 50th birthday with ceremonial celebrations.
“From their sacred maraes to their ocean science centers, to places that we know are connected genealogically to us,” PVS CEO Nainoa Thompson said in a release, “every single signal from French Polynesia is making sure that we understand we're connecting the family and we're never going to let it go.”
Expected to make first landfall in mid-June, the canoes will stay in French Polynesia for roughly four weeks, stopping first at the ancient voyaging marae of Taputapuātea followed by visits to Papeete, Mataiea, Moʻorea and Tautira. After French Polynesia, the canoes will then visit the Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga, Aotearoa (New Zealand), the islands of Melanesia, Micronesia, Palau, and eventually communities along the coasts of Asia and Central and South America before returning to Polynesia through Rapa Nui and Tahiti in 2028.
Thompson added, “I think leaving in three weeks we are much stronger than we were if we left a year and a half ago, because we are so much more connected to a movement in Hawaii that I think it's unlike any other place in the world and we are deeply, deeply grateful to the power of our community.
“Hawaii is the light. Hawaii is the place, Hawaii is the time, and we have this privilege to do a tiny little, small sail around the Pacific and to carry that light in a way that can help pull us together in the ocean country, biggest in the world. And we're just very proud to do that,” Thompson said.
Approximately 400 crew members from Hawaii and the Pacific will take part in the Moananuiākea Voyage as it travels nearly 43,000 nautical miles over the next three years, visiting 36 countries and archipelagoes, roughly 100 indigenous territories, and over 345 ports.
Before returning home in December 2023 in the wake of the devastating fires on Maui and due to unprecedented El Nino weather patterns in the Pacific creating unpredictable conditions, Hōkūleʻa and her crew reconnected with communities in Alaska after launching on June 15, 2023. They then sailed south through British Columbia, to Washington State, and down the coasts of Oregon and California while connecting with communities in 45 ports.
Since her return, the focus has been on crew training, educational outreach and connecting with 25 island communities and over 12,000 students through the Statewide Pae ʻĀina Sail over the last six months.
Each leg of the Moananuiākea Voyage is designed with a specific purpose that includes visits to important cultural, educational and environmental sites to advance shared values and sustainable practices. The ultimate goal, according to PVS, is to create collective action among Pacific peoples and global communities toward a sustainable future for the planet.
People can follow Hōkūleʻa and her crew on their voyage through real-time updates, educational content and events shared on the website and via social media @hokuleacrew on Facebook and Instagram.
