HONOLULU (AP) – The Polynesian voyaging canoe that is guided solely by nature as it circles the globe has reached South Africa, the halfway point on its three-year journey and the most dangerous leg partly because of complicated ocean conditions.
The double-hulled canoe Hokulea left Hawaii last year, and its crew members are sailing without modern navigation equipment. They are using the motion of the waves and the position of the stars to guide their path, sailing the way that brought the first Polynesians to the Hawaiian islands.
By the time the voyage is expected to end in 2017, crew members will have sailed more than 60,000 nautical miles and dropped anchor at 100 ports in 27 nations.
They arrived last week in Cape Town, South Africa, where crew members are teaching the local community about traditional navigation, Native Hawaiian culture and ways to care for the ocean.
“We’re here, we’re safe,” navigator Nainoa Thompson said Monday from Cape Town. “We got around South Africa safely.”