Hokule'a and Hikianalia depart for crew training ahead of 2022 voyage

May 13—In preparation for next year's planned circumnavigation of the Pacific, two canoes of the Polynesian Voyaging Society set off Wednesday for a training voyage to the Intertropical Convergence Zone, more commonly known by sailors as the doldrums.

The Hokule 'a and Hikia ­nalia departed from the Marine Education Training Center at Sand Island at about 10 :45 a.m. for a three-week sail that will focus on navigation and leadership training.

It is the first long-­distance, deep-sea training effort for the crews preparing for the May 2022 Moana ­nuiakea Voyage, a 41, 000-mile, 42-month sail around the vast Pacific that will cover 46 countries and archipelagos, nearly 100 Indigenous territories and 345 ports.

"The doldrums is a place where two oceans come together, where sea and sky merge. The place where our planet breathes out the weather, the heart and center of Planet Ocean. It is a place of great calm and even greater storms, " Nainoa Thompson, president of Polynesian Voyaging Society, said in a release.

Thompson, the pwo navigator who is captain of the Hokule 'a, added that, "Having the crew sail into the doldrums is a metaphor for entering and facing a storm, a challenge, whether it be a climate crisis or pandemic. How they navigate out of it will be a key part of their training."

The renowned double-hulled voyaging canoes will follow the traditional sea road known as Kealaikahiki, which is a heritage corridor that connects Hawaii with its ancestral homeland Kahiki, a general reference to the sweep of French Polynesian archipelagos influenced by Tahiti.

"Hokule 'a and Hikianalia will make their way into this sacred space quietly and with humility, " the Pacific Voyaging Society wrote in a release Wednesday.

Located approximately 5 degrees north of the equator, the Intertropical Convergence Zone is a belt of converging tradewinds and rising air that encircles the Earth. It's a place of highly unstable conditions that might see volatile thunderstorms and thick cloud cover obscuring the stars.

But it is also notoriously known as a place for monotonous, windless weather—hence the name doldrums.

Both Hokule 'a and Hikianalia, which famously sailed around the world together from 2014 and 2017, underwent months of dry dock refurbishing in preparation for sailing around the Pacific over the next five years.

The crew is described as a mix of senior voyagers and new crew members. While Thompson will lead the Hokule 'a, pwo navigator Bruce Blankenfeld will be captain of the Hikianalia.

The doldrums sail and the other training voyages in the upcoming months will allow the crew to test the safety and performance of the two newly refurbished canoes while still in Hawaiian waters. Those waters include the rough seas and strong winds of the Kaiwi and Alenuihaha channels, as well as at South Point, the southernmost point of Hawaii island.

The sail also will allow for the testing of new satellite technology and the Pacific Voyaging Society's new voyage portal at hokulea.com, which will allow people from around the world to join the voyage virtually through imagery, curriculum and updates from the crew.

This virtual "Third Canoe, "

according to the society, will include content provided by partners Arizona State University, the Kamehameha Schools and the University of Hawaii, with equipment provided by the Omidyar 'Ohana.

In the coming months, crew members also will train on sails to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and French Polynesia.