Hokulea, Hikianalia to embark on 4-year journey circumnavigating the Pacific

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - The numbers are hard to wrap your head around.

Four years, 43,000 miles and 345 ports.

That’s the scale and scope of the journey that Hokulea and Hikianalia will embark on later this year.

Get more details of Hokulea’s next major voyage by clicking here.

The voyage, called Moananuiakea (”a voyage for Earth”) will kick off this summer in Alaska.

Details of Moananuiakea were announced Tuesday by the Polynesian Voyaging Society.

“It’s going to go to 36 countries and archipelagos... at least 150 indigenous territories,” said PVS President Nainoa Thompson said. “It’s going to connect, explore, discover.”

The sail plan has the voyage kicking off in June from Alaska, a first for Hokulea.

From there, crew members will sail down the West Coast to Mexico, Central and South America. Hokulea will be in Polynesia from March to December 2024 and then make its way to New Zealand, Melanesia, and the West Pacific.

The voyage will end in Japan, and the Hokulea will be shipping back to Los Angeles and then sailed to Hawaii.

Thompson announced plans to circumnavigate the Pacific in 2019, but the voyage was put on hold by the pandemic. In the meantime, the nonprofit has worked to train up the next generation of navigators.

In 2017, PVS wrapped up a worldwide sail for Hokulea that traversed 40,000 nautical miles.

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