- This event has passed.
Bruce Blankenfeld, Master Navigator, “Rediscovery of Ocean Heritage”
August 2, 2020 @ 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm
Master Maritime Navigator and Hōkūle‘a Captain, Bruce Blankenfeld will discuss ancient Polynesian navigation techniques, the perpetuation of these, and the Hōkūle‘a’s “Mālama Honua” (the recent worldwide voyage in traditional voyaging sailing canoes).
Captain Blankenfeld serves as PWO Navigator and crew training coordinator for the World Wide Voyage. He is employed as a foreman by McCabe Hamilton and Renny (stevedoring contractor) and is a long distance paddler and coach for Hui Nalu Canoe Club. His most recent voyage as captain and navigator was the 2009 training sail from Hawai‘i to Palmyra and back in preparation for Hōkūle‘a’s Worldwide Voyage. Bruce serves as a director of crew training for the voyage.
Bruce began his association with Polynesian Voyaging Society in 1977 by volunteering for the maintenance of Hōkūle’a while training for crew on day and night sails.
In 1990, he began formal navigation training with Nainoa Thompson and Mau Plailug, which included a nine-day sail on Hokule’a out of sight of land in 1991. On the 1992 voyage to Rarotonga, he served as an apprentice navigator on Hokule’a from Rarotonga, Cook Islands to Tahiti (800 miles, 8 day) and then as co-navigator, with Kimo Lyman, from the Tahiti to Hawai’i.
After many decades of sailing and navigating, in 2007, on Ku Holo Mau, the voyage to Satawal, Bruce was captain and navigator of Hōkūle‘a from Hawa’i to Pohnpei. He rejoined the crew for the sail from Chuuk to Satawal, where he was one of five Hawaiians inducted into PWO by Mau Piailug.
Bruce will be introduced by Emily and Sophie Kelley-Lau. Emily and Sophie were born in Hawaiʻi and lived there until they were 10 and 8, after which they moved to Islesboro. Although they were welcomed into the loving community of Islesboro, they missed their native, vibrant culture. When the Hōkūleʻa sailed into Mount Desert Island, it was like a breath of warm Hawaiian air. Since first seeing and learning about the ancient traditions of Polynesian voyaging, the sisters have hoped to become a greater part of the Mālama Honua mission that Bruce introduced to them in Southwest Harbor.