February 17, 2000--A New Sail Plan

Source: Sam Low

"Last night after we decided to let the canoe run free, the sky cleared and the wind began to accelerate," says Nainoa. "This morning we are making good time--rocketing home--and the canoe feels so good, so smooth and confident."

Just before sunset yesterday Nainoa called a meeting with senior crew and navigators and later, after dinner, with the entire crew to discuss a new sail plan. For the last three days we have been struggling to sail the canoe hard into a wind that blows from the ENE and in spite of our best efforts, we find ourselves being forced to the west of our ideal course line. On February 13th we were 35 miles west. During the next four days the numbers mounted 58 , 60, 75 and 110 miles. To make up the distance would require us to continually punch into the wind, or perhaps even begin to tack. During last night's meeting Nainoa described a way out of this dilemma.

"We are west of our course line and getting more so every day. That is not the result of bad steering on our part, everyone of you has done an awesome job of holding a course. It's the northerly wind component that is driving us west. The canoe wants to sail free and we have been driving her hard to get back to our course line. We're not going to do that anymore. What we are going to so is target South Point rather than a point in the ocean 250 miles to the east of the Big Island. That will be difficult and it will require discipline from all of us--but it's a new challenge. It's exciting.

Ever since the first voyage in 1976, Nainoa went on to explain, the reference course has allowed for a large 'cushion' of error by targeting a point in the ocean 275 miles east of the Big Island at the mid-latitude of Hawai'i (20.5 N) where the canoe would finally turn west down wind to find landfall. During the last 25 years, the ability of Hokule'a's navigators to use a combination of dead reckoning and celestial clues to find their way over long ocean passages has improved to the point where such an ample cushion might not be needed. Taking that into consideration along with the fact that Hokule'a's present heading seems destined, it projected forward to bring her directly to the the island of Hawai'i--Nainoa decided to let the canoe find the most efficient way home by following a route that the winds allow.

"When we sailed to Rapa Nui, Nainoa pointed out, "we thought that the canoe was our instrument which we would use to reach land but we found our that in reality we were the instrument for the canoe to reach landfall. It's something that is difficult to explain. It's the mana of this canoe. When Max said that he saw land ahead on the day we found Rapa Nui I was a little bit in shock and denial at first. We had been sailing in squalls even worse than we have experienced on this voyage. I stayed back at the navigator's platform. I didn't believe it. Bruce had to come back and tug me to go forward--"There it is--it's there he told me.'"

"I'm not saying that we had nothing to do with finding Rapa Nui--far from it. We trained hard for 2 and a half years for that voyage and we chose a crew of intense, dedicated professionals to make that voyage and we worked every inch of the way. Now I want to do the same thing on this voyage.

This new sail plan will require more precision than any other previous voyage home from Tahiti and so Nainoa has asked Bruce and Chad to assume a more active role in the navigation as assistants to him as they did on the voyage to Rapa Nui.

"Shantell and the apprentice navigators will continue to plot our position and we will continue with our daily meetings, "Nainoa explained duringe the crew meeting, " but now Bruce, Chad and I will meet every day to come up with our own positions. We will not tell the student navigators where we think we are and the learning process will continue because education is still an extremely important goal of this voyage. So far the student navigation team has done extremely well. There is no reason to expect that won't continue. But the precision that is needed in this new sail plan-without the cushion-requires that the senior navigators, with me as principal navigator, step forward and take a more active role.

"I'm excited," Nainoa told us all at the end of the meeting. " We have a new challenge. It will test us all and it will give Hokule'a the freed om she needs to find her way home. Which seems to me to be especially fitting on this voyage which marks her 25th anniversary."