by Kari Leitz
Visiting on the shores of the Cabrillo Marina Beach in San Pedro this week are six traditional voyaging canoes, the Vaka Moanas, from the South Pacific islands.
Each boat carries a crew of 16, mostly singles in their 20s, and their journey across thousands of miles of open ocean began in April of this year from Aotearoa, New Zealand. Their canoes are equipped with eight solar panels to power their engines, natural gas is the only fossil fuel used and is employed solely for cooking, and they’re navigating their way across the sea with the stars, sun, wind and wildlife as their guide.
It all began in 2008 when Dieter Paulmann, the founder of Okeanos – Foundation for the Sea, visited the Festival of the Pacific Arts in American Samoa and saw the Cook Islands’ “Te Au O Tonga” vaka. It was an epiphany.
He envisioned the vaka as a symbol for a sustainable, respectful stewardship of the ocean and its inhabitants. Inspired by his friendship with master navigators and his passion for reviving ancient Polynesian culture and ancestral wisdom, a project was born.
Seven ocean-voyaging vaka moanas were rebuilt. Members of the vaka family crewing their own vessels include Aotearoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, Samoa and Tahiti. Two of the vakas are crewed by people from Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Hawaii and Vanuatu.
So far, six of the vakas have traveled from New Zealand to the Hawaiian Islands, San Francisco, Monterey, and Malibu. They will be onshore at Cabrillo Marina Beach through this Sunday, and will depart for San Diego on Monday morning.
Tomorrow (Friday), August 26, at 3 p.m., the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium will host a presentation by the captains of the six vakas with a video about the Pacific Voyagers. On Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. the public is invited to meet and greet the crew.
Colin Philp is the President of the Fiji Islands Voyaging Society and is sailing aboard the Fiji vaka.
“Our mast broke about four miles west of Point Conception about three days ago,” Philp said. “We had to use a jerry rig to get into sheltered waters and pick up a tow. We stayed in Monterey for a couple of nights. That was planned. But we had to stop in Santa Barbara for one night; that was unplanned. We stopped one night in Paradise Cove in Malibu, then we sailed down to Venice Beach the next morning, sailed up and down Venice Beach. Then we moved to here.”
What was it like to sail between Hawaii and the mainland?
“Lots of pollution between Hawaii and San Francisco,” said Philp. “There was about a week when the canoe was continually passing through rubbish. Everything from fishing nets to discarded cap bottles, fishing lines, plastic bags. And the terrible thing is that’s only what’s visible. We don’t know what’s below the ocean surface. There must be tons and tons of refuse below the surface you can’t even see with your eyes.”
Are there similar problems in the South Pacific?
“Our major concern in the Pacific islands is the water level rise. A lot of the atolls are, at a maximum, 2 meters high. So every inch makes a difference. Every inch is covering hundreds of meters of usable land, land that can be planted and lived on.
“You look at the Micronesian islands,” Philp continued; “they’re disappearing at a rapid rate. They’re even contemplating where they’re going to move to. They’re going to have to move to the bigger continents and they’re preparing to leave off their islands. And that’s very depressing. I don’t think there’s enough awareness of that in this part of the world.”
“And also, the fisheries are being depleted with fleets from the Northern hemisphere moving into our waters and taking all the fish that’s left. There seems to be a mad rush to catch everything that’s left in the ocean. They’re building more and more fishing boats.”
What is the purpose of the Pacific Voyagers?
“We’re trying to promote living in tune with nature just as our ancestors did,” Philp explained. “That’s why we’re using wind power. That has to be the best way for this world to survive. It’s the manmade things that’s making things go wrong for the environment. That’s really what we’re trying to promote: our culture, our traditions. It’s all about living in harmony with nature.”
“Everyone can do a little bit to help. Buy a more economical car, push for electric cars. Turn the lights off when you don’t need them. Just little things can make a big difference. I hear that you’re banning plastic bags here, that’s fantastic!”
Where will you be going from here?
“We’ll carry on to San Diego,” Philp said. “We’ll leave the canoes there for five months for winter and fly back home, except for two crew members who’ll stay behind so they can do some maintenance on board. And those two will do a changeover in December so they can spend time with their families. And we’ll all fly back at the end of January next year and start sailing.”
“Then we’ll continue south to Ecuador. Costa Rica, Coco Islands and Galapagos on the way back to Marquesas and Tahiti. We should be home, we hope, by the end of May.”
So how has the journey been so far?
“I love it,” said Philp. “You get so close to nature when you’re out on the ocean for days on end with only the horizon that you can see. You go through storms. Then you go through beautiful starry nights. Every day, it’s nature and the miracles of nature. You really feel close to God . . .”
At 3 p.m. on Friday the Cabrillo Marine Museum hosts a presentation by the captains of the six vacas with a video about the Pacific Voyagers. On Sunday the public is invited to meet and greet the crew at the Cabrillo Marina Beach from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. To learn more go to pacificvoyagers.org. The Cabrillo Marina Beach is right across from the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium at 3720 Stephen M. White Drive in San Pedro. Parking is $1 per hour ($9 max) for cars. ER
