Hōkūleʻa and her crew were welcomed by the people of Port Townsend, Washington Tuesday afternoon after an eight-hour sail up the Puget Sound from Tacoma.
The crew is now making its way down the coast.
Hōkūleʻa Captain Mark Ellis said conditions were ideal with calm waters and sunshiny weather from Tacoma up through Port Townsend, Washington Tuesday.
"When we arrived at the dock, we actually made good time, we came in a little early," he said. "There was roughly about 250 people on the dock and then we had a tribal welcome from two of the tribes from the area."
Port Townsend is the ancestral homeland of the Indigenous Klallam people. But Ellis said many of the community members they’ve encountered throughout their port stops in the Pacific Northwest have been Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.
"They’ve been so welcoming. You know with the canoe we’re very weather dependent, so they’re also very flexible and very kind. We really appreciate all that they’ve done nourishing us with gifts of food as well as gifts of blessings," he said.
Hōkūleʻa spent the night docked at the Northwest Maritime Center and Ellis said plans are to depart the area early Wednesday morning for Neah Bay.
"Neah Bay is right by the turn to make down the coast to California. So we’ll be staging at Neah Bay and watching the weather, and once the weather is good for us and the canoe, then we’ll make the turn and start heading down south."
Stay tuned for HPR's coverage of Hōkūleʻa as reporters interview crew members and track their progress through the Pacific:
