The Hōkūleʻa was welcomed in Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas early last week. But the stop was only a short one, as the crew set sail for Tahiti – where they will meet up with the Hikianalia. We caught up with Bruce Blankenfeld on board last week – where the crew remained in good spirits and were keeping busy.

We left Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas about two days ago. We’re on our way to Tahiti and it’s nice. It’s kind of light, light winds and light weather. A bit of rain coming through here and there, but that’s alright. It’s always nice.

Nuku Hiva was fabulous. We had some really good engagement with the community while we were there and got to experience. They had a wonderful welcoming ceremony. You know it was just nice and simple. It was nicely done. And yeah, just checking the place out and we experienced a lot of Marquesan hospitality.

So when we go to Pitcairn, and everybody went on the island for the day. When we came back, there was boxes and boxes of fresh fruit. Beautiful watermelons. You know, so they sent us away with like these boxes of fresh fruit and watermelons that took us all the way to the Marquesas. And when we left the Marquesas, they gave us bags and boxes of fresh fruit. And a fisherman was coming back in from fishing, about 5 in the morning or when we were getting ready to leave, and came over and threw two beautiful 40 pound ahi on board the canoe for us. So yeah, we’re still eating well and our cooks our still performing at a high level.

Well, at nighttime after dinner we have an hour or so [to] talk story and education time about navigation. And looking at the sky and trying to understand it. Basic navigation principles, so we do that early in the evening. And then by the time that’s all finished, the guys who got to come on watch in a few hours get some rest and that’s alright. In the morning time, guys do their duties. But we just keep busy. There’s always a lot to do, you know the wind is always shifting so we’re changing sails and we’re adjusting things. And you know try to constantly make improvements on everything. We keep our time occupied pretty good. We’re not just staring at the walls.

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