Voyage Events
Events for San Diego
Winterizing and winter break until January, 2012
January 24, 2012 is the day of departure of the second leg.
Te Mana o Te Moana – The Spirit of the Sea
Our Polynesian ancestors respected and cared for the sea. As we follow in their wake on our journey, we carry with us Te Mana o Te Moana, as we venture forth raising awareness to help heal our ocean. Like our forefathers had done thousands of years before us, we travel using traditional Vaka Moana, voyaging canoes.
Our mission is simple: Use the wisdom of our ancestors, combined with modern science, to propel us into a more sustainable future, help heal our injured ocean, raise awareness, and to revive our cultural traditions of voyaging. Demographically, our crews vary. We have come together from many islands, men and women, young and older, to sail our seven vaka as one.
Starting in Aotearoa (New Zealand) in April of 2011, we have sailed to Tahiti, The Marquesas, and throughout Hawaii where we attended the Kava Bowl Ocean Summit. At the Kava Bowl Summit, all voyagers, along with some of the top marine scientists in the world, came together to address the effects of climate change on our ocean, the economic costs of the ocean, and the intrinsic value we hold for our ocean. During this unique Summit, we built a bridge, linking our traditional wisdom and spirit of the sea, with current scientific findings.
We have just concluded our North American leg of our journey. We sailed down the California coast, starting in San Francisco and concluded in San Diego where we are winterizing our vessels. Commencing our journey again in January, 2012, we’ll continue to raise awareness of the current health of our Pacific Ocean and show people what they can do to help. During our journey thus far, we’ve seen pockets of floating plastic and debris, litter strewn upon our beaches, and the most heartbreaking: a Fin Whale just off the shores of San Francisco, struggling in an entangled piece of plastic rope that only took hold deeper. We’ll continue our voyage south to Cabo San Lucas, on to Costa Rica’s Cocos Islands, the Galapagos, The Marquesas, Tahiti, and then back to our Pacific Island homes. We’ll also attend the Festival of Pacific Arts in the Solomon Islands in July 2012. We invite and encourage you to continue following us on our journey. We get so much joy and pleasure from people following and encouraging us along the way!
Anyone is welcome to come and see our vaka and to speak with our crews when we are in a location near you. If you’d like visit, or even assist us in any way, please do see our sail plan. With any event dependent on the elements of nature, delays may occur. When we're sailing, you can follow our actual real time position at Track the Voyage. Until we commence again, we'll be winterizing our vaka moana in San Diego until January, 2012.
