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Polynesian Voyaging Canoe of Maui
Mo'okiha O Pi'ilani
Launch
Report from the Island
Thursday before last (June 26 2014) in Silicon Valley I received word from Polynesian Voyaging Canoe building NGO Hui O Wa'a Kaulua (“Assembly of the Double Hull Canoe”) President Kimokeo ("Kimo") Kapahulehua that after nearly 2 decades of effort at construction, as well as considerable fundraising (including mainland Aloha Festival booth pitches (in San Francisco & with booth in Sacramento & Napa) & online campaigns), the Hui’s Mo'okiha O Pi'ilani (“Sacred Lizard of Maui”), a 62 foot, 11 ton, full-scale construction of an ancient Polynesian Voyaging Canoe of the type used between the Bronze & Iron Ages to settle the Pacific, was finally finished & ready to launch the following Friday after next (Friday, July 11, 3:30 pm at High Tide (tomorrow as I write this)), to be preceded by dedications, consecrations & blessings by a retinue of Hawaiian Elders, Priests & Government Officials starting at noon. The day after Kimo’s communiqué, late last Friday evening, I received a 2nd message from Kimo indicating that in 2 days at Sunday midnight (July 6 2014), the canoe would be towed from its construction shed at the Hui, in a procession also attended by Hawaiian Elders & Priests, chanting, pounding drums & sounding Conch shells, & to which the public was also invited, the canoe taking the route through Maui’s major town Lahaina down its main drag Front St. to Mala Wharf, from where it would be launched the following Friday. Given the short notice, wife Toni & I labored late into Friday night, managing to secure a B&B, rental car & round trip flight departing the next day at 8am.
As soon as I arrived in Maui, the day before the canoe tow, I drove across the island directly to the Hui, arriving near “closing” just in time to catch a crane hoisting a mast onto the deck of the canoe. The next evening I returned to the Hui to attend the tow, preceded also by a Hawaiian Elders & Priests blessing ceremony. At the midnight hour the Priests completed their final ceremonies & with much arm waiving, hailed the canoe to come. The massive truck cab, trailer in tow, turned on its roof lights, fired up its engine & with a jolt & mighty popping creaks of straining metal trailer spars, Mo'okiha O Pi'ilani lurched forward & began to move. As the vessel headed toward a tight turn onto Front St., a gathering crowd held its breath as the canoe cleared by just inches street lamps & tree branches, until she was finally clear & thundering down Front St – at one point stopped cold at Banyan Tree Park by Courthouse Square, jammed tight between street lamp & illegally parked car, whereupon a posse of burly Polynesians appeared & physically lifted the car out onto the sidewalk, of the way of this unstoppable canoe. We proceeded through town, suburb & bedroom community, in the wee hours, surrounded by a throng of chanting, drum pounding, conch blowing Hawaiian Illuminati, behind whom trailed a boisterous & cheering crowd of hundreds, startling to consciousness a sleeping park bench wino who couldn’t believe his eyes & probably swore off drinking on the spot, while awakening slumbering Hawaiians in their homes, they rushing to living room windows, displaying agape stares of joyful incredulity, for it was a precession & pending sail that hasn’t been seen in Maui for over 800 years, as shown in a brief video clip.
After about an hour we pulled into Mala Wharf, the tow truck deftly driving down the boat ramp to the waterline then backing up to maneuver the canoe into a parking lot stall, where an additional blessing ceremony wrapped up the proceedings. Over the next few days final preparations ensued, largely around preparing the large crab-claw sails & canvas covering the hulls.
Mo'okiha O Pi'ilani sits majestic at Mala Wharf in the island sun. Tomorrow, Friday, at high tide, she enters the Pacific, voyaging into a Polynesian New World.
Links
News: Launch announcement Tow
Webs: Hui O Wa'a Kaulua (Facebook)
UPDATE (Launch Media):
[Right after the launch I had to head back to California the next day to resume work on another project deadline (still working on it, a global warming solution proposal to MIT), so it’ll be a while before I can write-up the launch & edit the tow & launch video I shot – in the interim the Hui sent along these links]
Immediately after the launch, the following pro launch media appeared: Video Slideshow Story
And from the Mo`okiha O Pi`ilani Archives of B. David Cathell Photography Inc.:
July 21 - Prep for Moving July 28 - Prep for Launch
August 4 - Launch Day, Part 1 August 11 - Launch Day, Part 2 August 18 - Launch Day, Part 3
Alrighty Then!
Po'okela,
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