As a result of the Maui wildfires, and potentially unprecedented weather patterns in the Pacific, Polynesian Voyaging Society CEO Nainoa Thompson announced Wednesday that the Hokule‘a will be diverting from its sail plan in December to make a stop back in Hawaii.
While the duration of the voyaging canoe’s stay in the islands has yet to be determined, the change is not expected to affect the Moananuiakea Voyage’s four-year timeframe, Thompson said.
“The level of hurt that’s happening in our home is something I can’t comprehend. All I know is that we have to come home because of it,” Thompson said in a Wednesday news release. “Lahaina is a voyaging powerhouse … I believe the family is going to need the canoe and the canoe is going to need the family.”
The Hokule‘a is currently docked in San Francisco, where it is scheduled to remain until Sunday as it participates in community engagements. It is scheduled to make its return to Hawaii in late December from San Diego before resuming its circumnavigation of the Pacific.
This year’s El Nino climate phenomenon could be among the most intense ever experienced, bringing with it intense drought, heat waves and floods. The risks of sailing through it are unknowable, Thompson added.
“This is the first time that I know of that we’re having to really make decisions about a really established hot Earth plus the heat of El Nino,” he said. “The job of the navigator is to protect that canoe and those who sail it and the way to do that is to watch nature, and make decisions on when it’s time to go and when it’s not time to go.”
The Moananuiakea Voyage is a 43,000-nautical mile, four-year circumnavigation of the Pacific that will reach 36 countries and archipelagos, nearly 100 Indigenous territories and more than 300 ports. The voyage is an educational campaign that aims to raise awareness on the importance of oceans and Indigenous knowledge through port engagements, education and storytelling.
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Linsey Dower covers ethnic and cultural affairs and is a corps member of Report for America, a national service organization that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.
