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Voyaging Canoes on the San Francisco Bay, 7.Aug.2011 Attraction of the day were the visiting canoes of the Pacific Voyagers Society. We expected them to be docked at the Treasury Island, but instead we spotted them in front of the Golden Gate from afar, crossing the straight between Lands End and Point Bonita. However, before were sailed close to them, they all dropped already anchor in front of the China Beach, and than we realized how many they were at the same place: We saw 6 canoes. It was very impressive, I never saw so many of them together. But... we were too late to see them sailing from up close. Recreation of the ancient Polynesian Voyages begun in the 1970'ites. The Polynesian Voyaging Society furnished a 1st modern recreation of a Voyaging Canoe and began to revive the skill of traditional Open Ocean Voyaging. The crew was educated by the Micronesian navigator from a small Atoll of Satawal, Mau Piailug (see also this Wiki-Entry). He was one of the few remaining people in existence with this ancient knowledge. In 1976 Piailug, his Hawaiian student Nainoa Thompson and others sailed the Hokule’a from Hawaii to Tahiti on an epic journey without any navigational aids, and... the Polynesian Pride was reborn. The Pacific was never the same! Every Pacific Island State made it to a matter of national honor to construct a historic canoe and to educate a crew. We never saw Hokule'a from up close, but we were fortunate to visit in Honolulu the sister ship Hawai'iloa and to talk to one of the navigators. |
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