HILO, Hawaii: Two double-hulled Hawaiian voyaging canoes left here last Saturday on a three-month, 6,000-mile Pacific journey that aims to use ancient Polynesian navigational techniques. Using only dead reckoning and noting winds, ocean swells and the positions of the sun, moon and stars, these forerunners of modern shipping are headed for the South Pacific, where they will be joined by a third Hawaiian canoe, one from New Zealand and two each from Tahiti and the Cook Islands.
The eight canoes will end their epic voyage back in Hawaii in mid-May,
sailing directly from the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia, which
scholars believe were the source of the first voyages to Hawaii 1,800
years ago. The languages, body ornaments and tools of Hawaii and the
Marquesas are similar.
The two canoes that left Hilo Bay Saturday were the newly built
Hawai'iloa and the veteran Hokule'a.
