Day 6: Rough seas can’t dampen vaka voyage spirits

Vaka Marumaru Atua left Rarotonga for Hawaii, to attend the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture from June 6-16, on Friday morning.

Evening report for Marumaru Atua as of 1800hrs 16th May 2024: Position – S09'47.426 W152'57.001. SOG – 7.4 Knots. Course ordered - 025' Course steered 015'.

Weather: E winds 24 Knots, NE swell 2-3M, Sea rough and scattered clouds some occasional squalls.

Situation: Throughout the day wind would drop and increase coming towards the evening. We had a few squalls come past. At present main and mezzin at full sail.

Vavia Puapii – Kia orana everyone. For day five on the ocean, we came through a lot of big squalls! It’s just been really rough, raining all through the night always filling up our bunks with water. Some big waterfalls down there. But aside all of that, everyone is enjoying the trip. We’re all eating well, no one is feeling sick and we’re all helping each other out on each other’s watches so we can make it to our destination on time (hopefully). I’m just feeling excited to be on this very long sail to Hawai'i. Everyday there’s a new challenge for us or ahead of us to do. We see a lot of birds during the day time and had a bird land on deck at night. We’re learning some new things about the ocean since we don’t have network on the big blue ocean, but if only we had a little bit of internet on board to call the kids back home (LOL). Sometimes we crew do get a bit bored on the vaka so I just tease Tama and Papa Steak for fun.