The Hokule‘a left the Pacific Ocean for the unknown, sailing to Australia on large, surfable swells for part of the way across the Tasman Sea. In Sydney Harbor the crew was greeted by aboriginal elders, part of an effort to honor and highlight indigenous people wherever the voyage went.

Later, crews dived underwater at the Great Barrier Reef. Joined by researchers and cameramen, they reported finding the coral there in good health and in better condition than in Kaneohe Bay, but still under threat due to climate change.

(In 2016 the more than 1,000-mile-long marvel of marine biodiversity suffered the largest annual coral die-off in its history and remains under severe threat, according to researchers.)

While in Indonesia, crews visited Borobudur, a massive ninth-century Buddhist stone temple.

On Aug. 15 a fresh 11-member crew departed on one of the voyage’s riskiest legs: a 4,000-mile-plus haul across the Indian Ocean from Bali to the tiny island nation Mauritius. It would be a long journey but one that organizers wanted to complete as quickly as they could.

The crew arrived at Port Louis, Mauritius, in good health after 30 days at sea — but that sail saw some “serious” weather, according to captain Bruce Blankenfeld, and they had faced down the risks of sailing a canoe on the open sea.

On Aug. 25, amid “challenging sea conditions,” as crew member Na‘alehu Anthony wrote in a blog, one member was swept overboard while moving a water-draining bilge pump across the canoe’s deck.

With help from the Gershon II, he was pulled safely back aboard less than 10 minutes later. It would be the only reported man-overboard of the voyage. The Polynesian Voyaging Society had projected five such incidents were possible during the entire three-year sail, and it constantly drilled crews to be ready.

“Our safety and training protocols proved their value when one of our crew went into the sea,” Anthony wrote. “These proved to be effective and the crew successfully executed what we had been trained to do.”