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Sailing Into Warmer Waters, Hokulea Says Aloha To Miami

Oiwi TV / Kaipo Kiaha
Oiwi TV / Kaipo Kiaha

H?k?le‘a is back in warmer waters. The voyaging canoe arrived in Miami over the weekend. We caught up with crew member Shantell De Silva as part of our ongoing series, H?k?le‘a: Voyage of Aloha.

Oiwi TV / Kaipo Kiaha
Credit Oiwi TV / Kaipo Kiaha
Hokulea crew members pass the time by playing chess with seashells.

On Florida's warmer weather:

“We started in VA with freezing temperatures of 30 degrees. And as we’ve been coming down the coast —North Carolina, South Carolina — it was still cold. But once we reached Florida, it started to warm up. The temperature is maybe 67 degrees in the morning and warms up through the afternoon. Currently we’re in West Palm and it is 81 degrees. So it’s a nice change from the cold gear that we’ve been wearing to shorts, slippers and t-shirts.”

Oiwi TV / Kaipo Kiaha
Credit Oiwi TV / Kaipo Kiaha

On passing the time aboard H?k?le‘a:

“I’ve been writing in my journal daily to keep track of all of these stops, all of these counties we’ve been passing through. It’s been very interesting with the crew. We had Uncle Wayne playing Hawaiian music. And at night when we come into dock, there’s a lot of talk story as we get to know each other.”

On keeping connections at sea:

“I’m excited to be home as well to see our families. But we’ve been sharing all of our stories on the phone with them. I got a chance to speak to my students at Kamehameha Schools. It was a nice sight to see my kids. I carried around a pink flag that’s the color of our dorm with their signatures and it was to represent that they were here with me. I’ve been taking pictures of all the different marinas and planning to share with them those photos. That is what they wanted to do: they wanted to be a part of the voyage and I was happy to do that with their names on the flag. And I’ll be returning it to them with the crew signatures and putting it up on our wall. They were a big part of this voyage for me.”

Oiwi TV / Kaipo Kiaha
Credit Oiwi TV / Kaipo Kiaha

H?k?le‘a will travel next to Key West and then on to Panama. The crew expects to return to Hawai‘i in June of next year.

Follow the two voyaging canoes on Google Maps:

Molly Solomon
Molly Solomon joined HPR in May 2012 as an intern for the morning talk show The Conversation. She has since worn a variety of hats around the station, doing everything from board operator to producer.
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