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2012: Events and News
2011: Events and News
Kau Wela (Dry Season) 2011
Hoʻoilo (Wet Season) 2011
2010: Events and News
December 2009: Training Sail to Palmyra
December 2008: Plan for a Training Sail to Palmyra and Christmas Island
January 2008: Ku Holo Mau (Voyage to Satawal) and Ku Holo Komohana (Voyage to Japan)
September 2006: Hokualaka‘i Launching; 2006 Malama Wa‘a (Caring for the Canoe)
August 2006: Kapu Na Keiki: Youth Training Program
December 2004: Navigating Change: NWHI Voyage Completed
Winter 2003: Northewestern Hawaiian Islands Voyage Postponed; Sail to Nihoa
Summer 2003: Marine Education Training Center; 2003 Statewide Sail
Spring 2002: Plans for Northewestern Hawaiian Islands Voyage
Summer 2001: Ocean Learning Academy
Spring 2001: 2001 Statewide Sail
Ho‘oilo (Rainy Season) 1999: Closing the Triangle: the Quest for Rapanui; Malama Hawai‘i Initiative
Kau (Dry Season) 1998: Restoring Hokule‘a; Center for Marine Sciences
Kau (Dry Season) 1997: Aloha, Wrighto; Project Ho‘olokahi
Ho‘oilo (Rainy Season) 1996-1997: Malama Hawai‘i: 1996-97 Statewide Sail
Ho‘oilo (Rainy Season) 1995-1996: Exploration Learning Center Launched
Kau (Dry Season) 1995: A Safe Successful 1995 Voyage; Northwest and West Coast Tours
Makali‘i (November-December) 1994: North to Hawai‘i, the Marquesas Connection, by Ben Finney
Hilinama (August-September) 1994: Hawai‘iloa Sea Trials, after Modification
Ka‘aona (May–June) 1994: Training and Education Sails; 1992 Voyage: 4. The Voyage Home
Nana (February–March) 1994: 1992 Voyage: 3. Sailing in the Cook Islands
Makali‘i (November-December) 1993: First Sea Trials for Hawai‘iloa Completed; Modifications Begin; 1992 Voyage: 2. Sailing in Tahiti
Fall 1993: Blessing and Launching Hawai‘iloa; 1992 Voyage: 1. Hawai‘i to Tahiti
March 1992: Building Hawai‘iloa
December 1990: Native Hawaiian Culture and Arts Program; search for logs to build Hawai‘iloa
March-April 1984: Announcing the 1985-1987 Voyage of Rediscovery
August 1975: A Voyage into Hawai‘i’s Past (1976 Voyage to Tahiti), by Ben Finney
1974: Plans for Launching of Hokule‘a on March 8, 1975
September 1974: Announcement of 3 day Polynesian Sailing Workshop at Kualoa Park
April 1974: Wa‘a Kaulua...Double Canoe, by Herb Kane. (Training on Nalehia, a 40 ft. double-hulled sailing canoe built by Ben and Ruth Finney in 1966; plans to build Hokule‘a.)

PVS Newsletter / Ka‘aona (May-June) 1994

Navigators & Crew Training Program

Latitude Training: On March 26, a group of navigators left Honolulu on Hokule‘a for a voyage to measure the height of the Southern Cross as it crosses the meridian at various latitudes of the Hawaiian Islands (18.5-22.5 degrees N). The farther north one goes in Hawai'i, the lower the meridian-crossing of the Southern Cross. On the voyage from Nukuhiva in 1995, the navigators will use the Southern Cross to determine when the canoe is in the latitudes of Hawai'i.

The canoe sailed 120 miles south of the Big Island, then north up the Kona Coast and beyond to 22.5' N (the latitude north of Kaua'i).

On the night of April 5 the canoe returned to Hilo for a welcoming ceremony at the Merrie Monarch Hula Festival. Before returning to O'ahu, the crew participated in an 'awa ceremony at Honaunau on April 10 to open the Kona Coast sailing program.

Navigators training on the voyage were Chad Baybayan and Bruce Blankenfeld, the principal Hawaiian navigators for the 1995 voyage; appren tice navigators Ka'au McKinney, Keahi Omai, and Ka'onohi Paishon; Cook Islands navigators Tua Pittman and Pe'ia Tua'ati; Hector Busby and two Maori navigators (Jacko and Piripi); Nukuhiva-born Tava Taupu; master navigator Mau Piailug from Satawal, Micronesia, and his son Sesario.

O'ahu to Kaho'olawe: A new class of apprentice navigators (Jarnell Martinson, Pi'ikea Miller, Max Yarawarnai, Hauoli Smith), along with Ka‘onohi Paishon and Tava Taupu, guided Hokule‘a from O'ahu to Kaho'olawe and back. Master navigator Mau Piailug and navigators Nainoa Thompson and Chad Baybayan accompanied the group as teachers. Also included in the crew were educators Lisa Berard and Brad Cooper of Kamehameha Schools, who are helping to develop a voyaging curriculum for 7th graders.

The crew arrived on Kaho'olawe on April 27. They went to Moa‘ula on April 28 to meet with students from Kamehameha Schools' Hui Lama science club, who were on the island to help restore its native dry land forest ecosystem and to visit archaeological sites. Moa'ula is an ancient sky observation site. No stars were visible that evening, but the next morning at sunrise, the crew discussed navigation with the students. On April 29, the crew sailed back to O'ahu via Lahaina with five Kamehameha school students and two advisers.

O'ahu to Kona (May 6-8) and Back (May 28-30): On May 6 Hokule‘a went to the Big Island via Makena, Maui, where it attended ceremonies on May 7 for the return of Kaho'olawe to the State of Hawai'i. Chicken skin time: Ka'onohi Paishon, Palani Kelly, and Ka'au McKinney harmonizing on one of George Helm's signature songs, "Kalama'ula" as the canoe passed Kalama'ula, Moloka'i.

On the Big Island, Hokule‘a participated in the closing ceremonies for the Kona Coast Sailing programs on May 22. A Big Island crew sailed the canoe back to O'ahu from May 28-30.

Schedule of Upcoming Events:

(All dates subject to change; call the PVS office before making plans to attend or participate.

June 24 - July 3, 1994: HNL-Kaua'i-Nihoa-HNL (Hokule‘a-Navigators training)

July 15: Hawai'iloa; major modifications completed; relaunching.

July 29 - 31: HNL-Maui; Hawaiiloa & Hokule‘a-Crew Training

August 5 - 8: Maui-Lana'i-Moloka'i-Kaua'i; Hawai‘iloa & Hokule‘a Crew Training

Aug. 12 - 15: Kaua'i - HNL; Hawai‘iloa & Hokule‘a Crew Training

Aug. 16: Dry dock Hawai'iloa

Sept. 26: Dry dock Hokule‘a & E‘ala

Jan. 20, 1995: Launch Hawai‘iloa & Hokule‘a

Jan. 20 - Feb. 6 Preparation for Voyage (Hawai‘iloa & Hokule‘a)

Hawai‘iloa & Hokule‘a will sail together:

February 7 - 10, 1995: Honolulu - Hilo

Feb. 15 - Mar. 17: Hilo - Rai‘atea

March 20 - 22: Rai‘atea - Tautira, Tahiti

Mamb 29 -Apr 12: Tautira - Taiohae, Nukuhiva

April 17 - May 12: Taiohae, Nukuhiva Kualoa, 0'ahu

May 13: Welcome Home Ceremony at Ke'ehi Lagoon


1992 Voyage, No Na Mamo, “For the Children”: 4. The Voyage Home; Satellite Phone Conversation on Exploration, between Nainoa aboard Hokuel‘a amd Lacy Veach orbitting overhead in the Space Shuttle Columbia

Kona Coast Sails for Education

From March to June, 1994, PVS joined the DOE to sponsor programs i voyaging for students and community members on the Kona Coast. Using th coastline and the canoe E‘ala as its classroom, PVS introduced participant to Hawai'i's voyaging heritage. Ecology culture, teamwork, caring for and sailing the canoe, and voyaging as a proces for setting and achieving goals were all part of the program. The mission was to get students to work toward a safe, healthy, sustainable future for Hawai'i.

E‘ala. Photo from the Wai‘anae Hawaiian Civic Club website.

Kupuna and cultural organizations such as Na Koa and Na Kala'i Wa'a go involved. Clay and Shorty Bertelmann; Angel, Nita, and Che Pilago; Tava Taupu; and others assisted in the program, which was supervised by Nainoa Thompson and Chad Baybayan.

Before each voyage, students were challenged to learn to sail E‘ala on their own; after each voyage, the pride of accomplishment was felt. One reporter wrote, "Students not only learned about sailing, ... they learned about themselves." They also felt motivated to learn more, study harder, and go further. One student commented, "We gotta do this again, maybe even interisland. More worse, I stay doing my work every day in school now!"

March 11 - 13: The modified E‘ala was launched at Pier 36, Honolulu. E‘ala was built in 1980 at Poka'i Bay to revive the Hawaiian canoe-building and seafaring heritage on the Wai'anae Coast. PVS has leased E'ala from the Wai'anae Hawaiian Civic Club for five years for crew training and ocean education programs.

April 6 - 10: On April 6 six students from a Wai'anae High School Marine Science class camped at Mahukona with George and Eugene Kawelo of Wai'anae. From April 7-10, they sailed E‘ala from Mahukona to Kawaihae, Kuki'o, Kealakekua and Honaunau. On April 10, they participated in an 'awa ceremony at Honaunau to open the Kona Coast voyaging programs and to deliver the Wai'anae canoe to the Kona Coast.

April 11 - May 8: Training for students from Konawaena High School and from Hale o Ho'oponopono, a Kamehameha Schools alternative education program.

May 9 - 15: Hale o Ho'oponopono students sailed E‘ala from Honaunau to Ho'okena, Miloli'i, and Kalae. On May 13, they were joined at Kalae by four students from Ka‘u High School and four students from Na Pua Noeau, the gifted and talented program for Hawaiian students at UH Hilo. These eight students sailed E‘ala from Okoe to Ho'okena to Honaunau.

May 16 - 21: Students from a Nautical Science class of Konawaena High Schoo and the Kona Sailing Club sailed E‘ala from Honaunau to Kailua, Kuki'o and Kawaihae, then back to Kuki'o, Kailua, and Kealakekua.

May 21: Big Island families of PVS crew members sailed Hokule‘a from Kawaihae to Kealakekua Bay. Everyone participating in the Kona Coast sails met at Kealakekua Bay for a final journey to Honaunau.

May 21 - 22: Participants went by sailing or paddling canoes from Kealakekua Bay to Honaunau. On May 22, an 'awa ceremony at Honaunau brought the student voyaging programs to a close.

May 24 - 29: Parents and children of the Kona Hawaiian Civic Club and Queen Liliuokalani Children's Center sailed E‘ala from Honaunau to Kailua, Kuki'o, and Kawaihae.

June 18 -July 1: Students from Na Pua Noeau will train on and sail E‘ala along the Kona Coast. Hokule‘a crew member Dennis Chun of Kaua'i Community College will conduct the program.


Mabel Gonsalves

by Keali‘ipu‘aimoku Froiseth

Another good friend of the PVS 'ohana has left us. Aunty Mabel was a lady filled with aloha for all of the Hokule‘a 'ohana. In 1980, she traveled to Tahiti with us aud again to New Zealand as part of the Hokule‘a support crew.

Aunty Mabel was a member of the Pi'ianai'a 'ohana and wife of the late Maika'i Gonsalves. Last year in July, we had a celebration of our Voyaging Heritage "Eia Ho'i Na Holo Wa'a" ("Behold the Voyaging Canoes"). At that time we held the first all wahine 'awa ceremony. Aunty Mabel was very happy and proud to be included.

Dear Aunty Mabel, we will miss your ‘eleu and aggressiveness in encouraging us to keep going with our projects of aloha and cultural awareness of voyaging.


Marquerite Thuret Emory & the Hawai'i-Tahiti Connection

by Ben Finney

One sunny afternoon in May a group of family and friends, including a number of Tahitians, gathered at O‘ahu Cemetery to pay their last respects to Marguerite Thuret Emory, the Tahitian widow of Bishop Museum anthropologist Kenneth Emory, Marguerite was 98 when she died; Kenneth had only been 94 when he passed away in 1992. Together they represented almost two centuries of Polynesian experience.

I first met Kenneth and Marguerite in 1958 when I enrolled at the UH to study for a master's degree in anthropology. Kenneth, who had come to Hawai'i with his parents in 1900, had been working for almost 30 years at the Bishop Museum where he had built a worldwide reputation for his research in Tahiti, the Tuamotus, and Hawai'i. How he had met his vivacious Tahitian wife Marguerite was a subject of much curiosity among his students. One day I finally got up enough courage to ask Kenneth.

In 1924 a wealthy American yachtsman offered to take a party of scientists on his yacht through the South Pacific to Samoa in order to give them an opportunity to study the plants, shells, and ancient monuments of the people at the islands where he anchored. The yacht, Kaimiloa, left Honolulu with several Bishop Museum scientists aboard, including a young surferturned-anthropologist, Kenneth Emory.

But the yachtsman and his guests did not get along, and when Kaimiloa reached Tahiti the scientists were deposited on shore. The yachtsman did, however, honor his obligation by offering to give each scientist a grant to continue research ashore.

Young Kenneth had already discovered the charms of Tahiti, and was delighted with the prospect of mapping the ancient Tahitian marae (temples) and collecting oral traditions about them. He carefully calculated how much it would cost him to work there a year and came up with the figure of $375. When, however, he showed his calculations to one of his colleagues, the latter told Kenneth that $375 wasn't enough and advised him to double it. So with much trepidation Kenneth approached the yachtsman and asked for $750 for his research. His wealthy patron thought the figure was way too low and doubled it to $1,500, four times Kenneth's original, timid estimate! Kenneth ended the story by saying: "I had so much money that I could afford to live in Tahiti a year, do all the research I wanted, and get married too."

Kenneth met Marguerite at a fancy costume ball in Pape'ete, where, dressed as a pirate, he spied the slim, lovely Tahitian made up as the Egyptian queen Nefertiti. Marguerite was newly returned from France where her father, a French government official, had sent her to be educated. This sophisticated young French-Tahitian was proud of her dual heritage, but was nonetheless intrigued by this shy American who asked her to dance. In spite of the fact that Kenneth could not speak French, and found Marguerite's Tahitian too fast for him to understand from his knowledge of Hawaiian, the two did manage to communicate and were married some months afterwards.

It is no exaggeration to say that the first long voyage of Hokule‘a, from Hawai'i to Tahiti in 1976, might not have taken place had these events not occurred. The yachtsman's disenchantment with scientists and his dumping them in Tahiti, then Kenneth's chance meeting with the lovely Marguerite, all added up to a life-long Tahiti-Hawai'i connection that permeated Kenneth's research and teaching. In class, Kenneth used to lecture about the legends of Mo'ikeha and Pi'ao linking Tahiti and Hawai'i, as well as linguistic and archaeological tics between the two places. It was thus natural that the first long voyage of Hokule‘a was made to Tahiti, Marguerite's ancestral home.


PVS Officers and Board of Directors

Officers: Myron "Pinky" Thompson, President; Kapua Lindo, Vice President; Virginia Elliott, Treasurer

Directors: Gilbert Ane, Moku Froiseth, Wally Froiseth, Harry Ho, Rey Jonsson, Eric Martinson, Jerry Muller, Laura Thompson, Michael Tongg, Nathan Wong, Bob Worthington, August Yee

Consultant: Ben Finney