Hiva Oa to Mangareva

Report on 08/24/99, A.M.

Hokule'a is anchored about 100 yard off Pitcairn Island on the NE side in Bounty Bay; the crew was ashore by 11:30 a.m. HST. After a couple of days and nights of squally weather (navigating by the moon, winds and swells), crew member Gary Yuen sighted Pitcairn directly off the bow of the canoe at sunrise this morning. The canoe was under sail, having dropped its tow line at 4:30 yesterday afternoon.

The crew spent the morning anchoring the canoe in sunny weather and light westerly winds. (Good wind for sailing to Rapa Nui!) The island is mostly high cliffs, thickly vegetated, and the anchorage deep and clear. You can see the anchor 43 ft. down. There are about 12 buildings in Adamstown, perched on the cliff above the bay; population is about 57, many of them the descendants of Fletcher Christian and the other mutineers of HMS Bounty and their Tahitian wives.

Because the anchorage is unprotected, the crew plans to leave by tomorrow evening. They are hoping for northerly winds to follow the westerlies as the cold front causing the westerlies moves to the east; the northerlies would allow them to sail to Mangareva, about 290 miles WNW of Pitcairn. If the westerlies persist, the canoe will be towed. ETA in Mangareva is Saturday. Newly appointed student navigator Aldon Kim, with Moana Doi and Catherine Fuller, will be guiding the canoe for the final segment of the voyage to Mangareva.

A new crew for the voyage to Rapa Nui, including navigators Nainoa Thompson and Bruce Blankenfeld, will be leaving Hawa'i for Mangareva on September 11. The two navigators will join navigator Chad Baybayan in Rikitea, Mangareva, to prepare for the push to Rapa Nui, to begin in mid-September.

Crew status: Everyone is feeling fine, ecstatic over landfall...the crew decided it wasn't the water from Hiva Oa that was causing the upset stomachs and chills, as some crew members who drank the water didn't get sick. Probably a bacterial infection; antibiotic got everyone healthy again.

Sources of Information: Cat Fuller, via Satelllite Phone from the Canoe.

For more information on the quest for Rapa Nui, go to the PVS Homepage.