Hōkūleʻa and her crew are taking a break from canoe tours during their week-long stay in Sausalito, California.
The crew is preparing the double-hulled canoe for a highly anticipated arrival ceremony in San Francisco this Sunday.
Hōkūleʻa crew member Lucy Lee said Hōkūleʻa is enjoying some much-needed rest and relaxation this week in Sausalito, California.
Several crew members returned to Hawaiʻi as soon as Hōkūleʻa docked in Sausalito Friday night, leaving the canoe with a skeleton crew of four.
"It's a small crew remaining, but we’re getting the work done. It’s been really awesome to kind of just have time with the waʻa and making sure everything is mākaukau before we head down through the rest of California," Lee said.
Crew members spent the day doing laundry, teaching online classes and running maintenance on the escort boat Kōlea.
As for Lee, she was on quartermaster duty. She spent the day painstakingly documenting every item on the canoe — where it was and how much of it they had.
"If you imagine everything that you have in your bedroom or living room and then make sure you know where every single one of those things is and how much you have of it and all those kinds of tiny, minute things that in our day-to-day lives we don’t think about it."
"But when you’re having to store things in all different places on the waʻa, it's very integral for someone to know where everything is. So that’s kind of been my kuleana," she said.
Lee said the crew is preparing Hōkūleʻa for a large arrival ceremony at Aquatic Park in San Francisco this Sunday. The last time Hōkūleʻa visited the Bay Area was 28 years ago.
"I mean all down this coast, it’s been amazing to hear people speak about how they remember Hōkūleʻa from her 1995 voyage, which was the last time she was on this coast and in this area," she said.
"People have photos, they have stories. And it's just been so amazing that Hōkūleʻa has transcended this boundary of time and cultural change."
Lee said the plan for Sunday is to first sail Hōkūleʻa from Sausalito out to the Pacific Ocean, and back under the Golden Gate Bridge into the Bay Area, weather permitting.
Take a look at HPR's past coverage of Hōkūleʻa:
