Twenty days at sea brings va’a to Tuia 250

VOYAGING VA’A: Fa’afaite crew member Josiane Teamotuaitau, on board the va’a during Sunday’s open day, said she was honoured to be part of Tui 250. Picture by Rebecca Grunwell

Navigating by traditional methods, skipper India Tabellini was one of 16 crew to make the voyage to New Zealand from Tahiti on Fa’afaite, to be part of the Pacific flotilla for Tuia 250.

Speaking at the open day on Sunday, she said they hit some bad weather on the journey and saw swells of up to eight metres, but they arrived safely after 20 days at sea.

Another crew member, Josiane Teamotuaitau, who joined the va’a for the second leg, said the crew were selected based on their navigational skills but also on their skills as entertainers and educators.

Not only did the crew need to be able to navigate by stars and swells, they needed to be able to do traditional dance and speak well.

Ms Teamotuaitau is a professor of Polynesian culture at the University of French Polynesia in Tahiti.

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She said it was an honour to be invited to the Tuia 250 events.

It gave them the opportunity to celebrate their common history with Maori.

“It allows us to commemorate our ancestors, our tipuna, and it also gives us the opportunity to reflect with all the other waka and the public here what legacy we want for future generations.”

The Fa’afaite is based in Pape’ete but the crew come from all over French Polynesia.

“We have people from the Marquesas Islands, one of our navigators is from the Austral Islands in the south, some from the Tuamotu islands and I am from Raiatea.”

Fa’afaite was designed and built by Okeanos Foundation for the Sea.

It is a 72-foot vaka moana, double-masted traditional Polynesian sailing canoe, outfitted with a solar-powered propulsion system, built in 2009 in New Zealand’s Salthouse Boatyard.

Fa’afaite was one of the seven traditional Polynesian sailing canoes of the Te Mana o Te Moana (Spirit of the Ocean) fleet that sailed 2011-2012, visiting 15 Pacific nations and reviving voyaging culture, as well as advocating ocean conservation.

Ms Tabellini explained the star compass, which is carved into the deck of the va’a. While they did have instruments and a back-up generator, they tried to use only sails during the trip.

“When there is no wind, we wait.”

The crew had a joke about coconut oil — that when it froze it was a sign they had gone too far south and needed to turn around, she said.

“Navigation is complex. It is about reading the big swells and looking at different bird species.

“The navigators learn how far different species fly from land. Some birds just go out for the day, others migrate, and they use the birds they see as a point of reference.

“The art of navigation was lost to our area of the Pacific but we have been trying to bring it back since the 1970s, by learning from people like master navigator Mau Piailug from Micronesia who revitalised Polynesia’s voyaging tradition,” she said.

There will be another open day tomorrow when the public are invited to go on board the waka.