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Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Diary Entries for Explores of the Sun

Day one: Imagine you are a crew member, leaving your shore for the first day of the voyage.  what you would have done that day and what you were looking forward to.

Day 1
Our last items of food and water are packed onto the waka and I am just about to start packing my supplies. I have already got the essentials, clothes for warm and cold conditions, first aid kit plus some food and water to add on to our community supplies.  I have a list of other things that I need but first things first, I need to find a bag. Ah there it is, ok flare, check! Fishing rods, check! Bible, check! Plates, check! Cutlery, check! Ok, looks like I will be out of here, sooner than I thought!

We just left Aotearoa and there were a lot of tears as we were saying goodbye and especially when we were sailing away. Well, we don’t really know when we will be coming back, because it may take us years to find Rapanui or it might take us days, who knows? But what we do know is that it is not going to be easy and being away from our family is going to make it even harder.

Even though I am quite nervous about the voyage, I am also very excited. Our whole plan is to follow the path of our Polynesian ancestors from long ago to travel on a waka using traditional navigating tools to get to Rapanui (Easter Island) It will be great to experience what my extraordinary ancestors accomplished long ago to find our beloved countries which we now call home. It will be a time to test our skills and knowledge of the ocean world.  

Day thirty:
You have been on the waka for 30 days now...what may you be feeling now?  
What are you now looking forward to?

Wow! This is 12th time I’ve been sick, the constant rocking and swaying of the waka is like riding on a endless roller coaster. The waves of the ocean have also been quite large the past few days which is making the waka slam against the waves. My stomach seems to be twisting and turning as much as the ocean is.

Other than the seasickness, our travels have been alright. Our head navigator has been tracking the islands well, mainly using the stars and the sea swells, although there was a really bad storm that occurred a few days ago.  The storm made it quite hard to navigate so we pulled the sails down to stop the waka from breaking. Until the storm finished, we all just tried to stay warm and dry, but it wasn’t that easy. The storm lasted a few hours before we could put the sails back up and continue our voyage.

Once the rain stopped, I did notice that the days were getting warmer and the sea spray wasn’t as cold. So we were able to dry all our wet clothes and materials that were wet and damp after the storm. We do expect to stop at an island called Tubuai in about 10 days to have some rest on land before we carry on with our journey to Rapanui.

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