"Hawaiki Rising" is a compelling and beautiful book, weaving many threads into an integrated tapestry. One thread is the story of a Polynesian voyaging canoe, Hokule’a, and therefore the story of Polynesian voyages of exploration and settlement. Another thread is the story of Polynesian non-instrument navigation, which made possible (and still makes possible) passages over vast distances with nothing to guide the navigator but the stars, the swells, the wind, the birds, and dead reckoning. Another thread is the personal story of two such navigators, a young man and his mentor, finding their way. Another thread is the story of the clash of Hawaiian and haole cultures. And yet another thread is the story of the fragile nature of leadership on a small boat under stress at sea.
The author is well qualified to tell all of these stories. He’s one-quarter Hawaiian and three-quarters haole. He’s a Yale-educated historian and a Harvard-educated anthropologist. And he’s a lifelong sailor with the domain knowledge that comes from three long-distance ocean passages aboard Hokule’a, including the most treacherous one -- her 1999 upwind passage to isolated and far-off Rapa Nui (Easter Island). He’s in intimate touch with the Hawaiian culture, with the spirituality of Hawaiians, with the science of Polynesian navigation, with the realities of ocean passage-making, and with the sociology of modern-day Hawai'i including the after-effects of the missionary culture.
Above all, he knows how to write. The telling of the capsize of Hokule’a and of Eddie Aikau’s doomed attempt to swim for help is as riveting as any story of tragedy at sea, including "Fastnet Force 10" (describing the 1979 Fastnet disaster) and "Fatal Storm" (describing the tragic 1998 Sydney-Hobart).
Any sailor who has navigated prior to the days of electronic navigation will find the description of Nainoa Thompson’s dead reckoning quite astonishing, involving as it does his mental integration of estimated course, speed, set, drift, and leeway spanning 20 days at sea, multiple tacks, 5 days of storms, 3 current systems, and 5 days drifting in the doldrums -- without the aid of compass, sextant, timepiece, chart, or even pencil and paper. Quite impossible, one would think, except that he raised their island destination with an error of 40 miles after 2400 miles at sea, close enough to enable the island’s seabirds to unwittingly vector the canoe’s final approach.
Here’s my favorite cross-cultural quote, shouted by a Hokule’a sailor in the midst of a 60-knot gale with the canoe being towed off a nearby lee shore: "If that [tow] rope breaks, we're going to be freaking 'opihi.” I have two things to say about that quote. (1) An ‘opihi is a type of Hawaiian snail that lives (and dies) on rocks, and (2) as a sailor myself, I’ll bet my bottom dollar that the Hokule’a crewman said something saltier than “freaking.”
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Some of My Best Friends Are Māori.
If you sail you read. Often the subject involves the sea. Frequently the many details about boats fill the pages. The best stories weave tales about men and women, their boats, and the journey afloat. On longer voyages, a day of nautical miles from land, buoyed by a sky filled with stars and a horizon filled with promise, you may be lucky enough to hear a fellow navigator read a story about the sea, and men and women who sail boats. Imagine that the narrator is the author of the book he is reading and the story is a tale of culture, his people, a nation that mastered the journey. Lips close, ears perked in anticipation of the next secret of passage, his breath reaffirms your confidence in the plot and your place on the surface as you glide into a sunrise. "Let me tell you how 'we' did it thousands of years ago," and Sam whispers into your ear the romance with stars and sea that brings us here, right now, to the water slapping rhythm on the hull and the impossible idea of a solo swimmer in that water on a one way journey. I learned how little I know about Hawaiki and sailing but my boat now floats considerably higher above the waterline. Some of my best friends are Māori.Marc PalumboPhoto of Lewis Branscomb at the helm with permission, Marc Palumbo
Top reviews from other countries
Helaine H.
Amazing Hawaiian and Polynesian History and Connection!
Reviewed in Canada on March 28, 2019
John A. Davey.
A very interesting and informative book.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 28, 2015Mario Migneault
Nice hardcover, well written
Reviewed in Canada on November 2, 2016