Hokulea, the star of gladness in Hawaiian, was a guiding star for ancient Hawaiian navigators, voyaging across the vast Pacific Ocean. It was a mystery how ancient people arrived to Hawaii in the middle of the Pacific until in 1975, a full-scale replica of wooden sailing vessel used in ancient Hawaii was built, and traveled from Hawaii to Tahiti and back. The vessel was named Hokulea and was led by Mau Piailug, a Micronesian navigator. He and his crew helped to further support the theory that early settlers of Hawaii systematically used navigation system and intentionally arrived to Hawaii from Tahiti. Since then, Hokulea has successfully voyaged across the Pacific many times. Currently, Hokulea is sailing from Hawaii to Micronesia, and then to Japan. This voyage started in January, 2007, and expected to arrive to Japan in May.
I am amazed by star navigation system used by ancient Hawaiians and Polynesians to voyage across the Pacific Ocean. Ever since my friend, who joined Hokulea in 2004 voyage to Northern Hawaiian Islands, told me about her experience on Hokulea, I was always wondering what exactly is star navigation. It sounds super complicated and requires great knowledge about the nature. So my question is “what do you need to know to voyage across the Pacific Ocean on a sailing canoe?”
The information is taken from Polynesian Voyaging Society. This is the group that actually coordinating Hokulea voyages and it is a great website to find out a LOT about voyaging and also about Hawaii.
Other useful information can be found in Wikipedia and The Other Hawaii websites. The pictures are also taken from these websites.
What Do We Need to Know in Navigation?
1. Winds. Voyage begins from avoiding typhoon seasons and knowing phenomenon such as El Nino to figure out what kinds of winds are occurring around the Pacific.
2. Clouds. Navigators can predict the weather from observing the type and colors of the oncoming clouds because they are associated with various kinds of wind and weather conditions. For example, nimbostratus clouds are associated with rain and poor visibility, which makes navigating by the starts impossible, so the navigator must guide the canoes by the ocean swells. And red skies at sunrise or sunset indicate moisture in the atmosphere and possibly rain or squally weather. More interesting examples are available at the above websites.
3. The direction and times of the rising and setting Sun. The Sun, Moon, and stars rise and set in one of 24 directional houses of the Hawaiian star compass developed by Nainoa Thompson, based on the Micronesian star compass of Mau Piailug.
4. Moon; the direction and times of rising and setting points. The Moon was mostly used to navigate when the sky was cloudy and other guiding stars are invisible.
5. Stars; the position, direction and times of rising and setting points of each guiding stars such as Hokulea, North Star, and the Southern Cross. Navigators used set of guiding stars, called star lines, depending on the time of the year, the time of the night, and whether in Northern or Southern hemisphere.
6. Wind force and sea state. Navigators would have to know how strong the wind is and know the sea state according to the wind and weather.
7. Swells. I guess there is a pattern depending on the direction and wind activity in the relation with the rising and setting stars; which means that navigators pretty much have to stay awake and watch the ocean and the sky, feel the wind, and calculate the time passing the whole time during the voyage.
8. Currents. Currents can help canoe move faster to the direction it’s going, and it can also screw up the direction the canoe is going if navigator is not aware of the current.
9. Sea life. Sea bird can be used to find land, but navigator would have to know their habits to do that. Also bird are key in finding food, fish!, for the crew.
10. Conditions of crew members. Crew members rotate to take care of the canoe and all the other business such as preparing the meals.
As I mentioned earlier, navigator have a great responsibility in succeeding voyage across the Pacific Ocean. One little mistake can put all the crew in great risk, thus they have to be aware of everything, from the sky to below the water where they cannot see, at all times. They have to know exactly what they are doing and constantly observe their surrounding environment for the clues. It is crazy how ancient Polynesian navigators found the way to Hawaii from Tahiti and other islands. Their knowledge about the nature and ocean is just amazing. I think it is wonderful that Hokulea opened up the door to discover and re-educate the people about their ancestors’ tradition and knowledge.
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