A self-described "novice steerswoman," the author takes the sweep. Behind her is a canvas tarp and a zippered opening of one of the bunks, which allow for head-to-toe sleeping. - Photo: Courtesy of Mike Taylor

Changing course

Hōkūle'a journey imparts lessons for life's voyage

By Heidi Kai Guth / OHA Native Rights Hale

All of us are on our own voyages – alone and together. Some of us are lucky enough to get training sails.

On March 22, 2009, the night before 11 of us set sail from Palmyra Atoll to bring Hōkūle'a home to O'ahu, our navigator, Bruce Blankenfeld, taught some of us how to plan a reference course on a chart, or map. He would keep this ideal course in his head for our 12 days at sea, and compare it to his mental map of the course that nature would allow us to take.

Heidi Kai Guth

Blankenfeld reminded us that in traditional navigation – using only such natural elements as the stars, sun, swells, birds and wind – one does not look to nature's signs to determine where one actually is, but where one is in comparison to where one started and the reference course plotted at that starting point. Only by knowing from whence you come, and paying attention to the details of what is around you, can you know how fast you are moving and your immediate heading toward your destination.

Non-instrument navigation requires honesty in observation. The navigator may wish conditions were different and hope that they improve, but those thoughts cannot distract the navigator from the honesty of recognizing reality and responding to the real conditions.

Our voyage home included a series of squalls, 20-foot breakers crashing onto us, constantly soaked foul-weather gear, and regular, encouraging calls of "Training sail!" from crewmembers. We echoed that cheering refrain as we changed and reefed sails – making them smaller so gusting winds wouldn't overstrain the sails' canvas or the masts and spars holding the sails – mended canvas tarps over our bunks (which allow for a head-to-toe line of five crewmembers in each hull) that were ripped by cresting waves, scrambled to untie still-damp laundry from the rigging before the next squall hit, curved our bodies around our food so the wind wouldn't blow it off our forks or out of our bowls, and huddled around the two-burner propane stove that cooked fresh-caught fish, boiled saimin, and warmed our hands during dark, wet nights.

We learned from each other and Hōkūle'a how to analyze and respond to information from our environment. Nature challenged us to trim sails to make best use of the howling, shifting or nonexistent wind; steer at a safe angle to oncoming waves while still moving toward our destination; and read the ocean swells when we could see neither stars at night nor sun during the day. We laughed as visits to the lua (no, there is no toilet on board) turned into salty ocean showers, and we strove to fulfill Captain Russell Amimoto's command to "Find stars!" under night skies that were road maps of darker-than-black squall clouds. The elements spoke to us with a beautiful honesty, and we enjoyed the rarity of a freedom of exposure to them.

Sunlight and stars were gifts of great joy. Clear skies literally expanded our horizons and allowed us to reassess our relationship to our reference course and our point of origin. We were privileged to be able to focus on and be humbled by our surroundings. We could not filter or alter the impact of our individual experiences and still help the canoe carry our small community safely home.

This training sail has forever altered my life's voyage: reality has a renewed, vibrant and intense beauty that I will gratefully strive to honor and protect.

Heidi Kai Guth is OHA's lead advocate for native rights. She served as a crewmember aboard Hōkūle'a on its recent 1,100-mile journey from Palmyra Atoll to Hawai'i, marking her second long-distance voyage aboard the traditional Polynesian sailing canoe. The Palmyra journey is the first of many deep-sea voyages intended to train the next generation of crewmembers and leadership in preparation for Hōkūle'a's planned circumnavigation of the globe in 2012.