The two Polynesian voyaging canoes - Hokulea and Hikianalia - are in now in Apia to attend the UNESCO conbference there - but they waited in Pago Pago for for the weather to calm before setting out. As the documenter of the 1999 voyage to Rapa Nui - I wrote daily reports to be posted on the web. We experienced fickle weather on that voyage - just as they are doing now on this one. Here is the report from September 21, 1999 Nainoas Thoughts Just before Leaving: (recorded Tuesday, September 21) The weather will be difficult. The pattern that has established itself in this area is a day of good weather, then the approach of a low and a couple of days of rain. Today is in-between, good weather and rain. Tomorrow and Thursday we may have good weather but I bet it will go bad again. Friday I think welll get rain. I want to leave now, otherwise we will have to wait until sunrise tomorrow to get through the reefs - another eighteen hours of delay. In eighteen hours we will go eighty miles toward Rapa Nui and the farther we sail east, the longer we will stay with the good weather. Im excited. We have been preparing for this voyage all our lives, we just didnt know it. All of our studying, the academic side of our preparation, has really just laid the foundation for what is inside us, the other ways that we understand the world. I think back on times with my family when I was a young kid, and all the time that I have spent on the ocean. All of this has prepared me for thinking about the ocean and the heavens and the environment, learning about our culture and our history and our heritage, learning about being at sea, learning about the canoes and about each other. I believe we are on the eve of tremendous growth as a crew. So Im both excited but also apprehensive about the difficulty of the trip ahead of us. This trip is going to be very difficult navigationally because of where were trying to go and because of the weather. The weather is now becoming a real factor. I didnt expect tropical lows forming and then dissipating around Mangareva. I expected subtropical lows forming to the south of us and moving to the east. They are there but that is not what is affecting us now - we are getting tropical lows from the north and that brings100 percent cloud cover, rain, changing winds and squalls. I think that we will be able to use some swells to navigate, probably from the south, but it depends on where the lows are situated to the south of us. They are the only weather systems that will build waves. The swells will come from low pressure areas at thirty five or forty degrees south. As long as the fetch (the area over which the wind blows) is long enough, the lows will generate swells that we can use, but will we be able to read them? We have to go to sea to find out. The moon is big now. It is waxing, the full moon will be on September 25th, and that will be a help. I think the skies will remain overcast, about 70 - 80 percent, but if it stays like this or improves we can navigate. We have a big moon that will rise at about 2 p.m. When the sun goes down we will have Jupiter and Venus. The moon has a cut to it, an edge, so we can tell where north is - the horns of the moon, tip to tip, point north, especially on the equinox. So the cut of the moon will help tell us where north is when the moon gets high. And Im hoping that tomorrow the visibility will improve because thats the weather pattern were in. The weather was bad yesterday, so hopefully it will be better tomorrow, but we dont know. But at least well be 100 miles along on our voyage. Learning is all about taking on a challenge, no matter what the outcome may be. When we accept the challenge we open ourselves to new insight and knowledge. In the last few days, I have just tried to be quiet and to study - thats how I prepare. I am thinking all the time about home, about the voyage, the weather, the crew, about what we have to do to make this work. I think about home a lot because thats why we do this. We love our homes, we love our people, we love our culture and our history, and we want to strengthen them. This is our opportunity, our chance to do something to support all those who care about these things. I want to thank all the people who gave so much to allow this voyage to take place, but who are not here now. They allowed us to take the risk, to do all of this. I want to thank all the families and children involved for giving us the chance to go. This voyage is about people - its about all our people. When I think back on my life, its clear that I had no way of knowing that I would be here now doing what I am doing. When I began studying in school and gaining knowledge, I sometimes doubted the importance of that effort. But its the knowledge that I gained with the help of so many teachers that is allowing me to do what we are about to do. So I hope that all our children will keep on pursuing knowledge. None of us knows where we are going, but at some point in our lives, that knowledge will allow us to jump off into the unknown, to take on new challenges, and thats what I consider before every one of these voyages - the challenge. Learning is all about taking on a challenge, no matter what the outcome may be. When we accept a challenge, we open ourselves to new insight and knowledge. When we voyage, and I mean voyage anywhere, not just in canoes, but in our minds, new doors of knowledge will open. And thats what this voyage is all about. Its about taking on a challenge to learn. If we inspire even one of our children to do the same, then we will have succeeded.
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 19:19:34 +0000
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