Voyage to Polynesia's land's end.

Voyage to Polynesia's land's end. Rapa Nui (Easter Island Easter Island,Span. Isla de Pascua, Polynesian Rapa Nui, remote island (1992 pop. 2,770), 66 sq mi (171 sq km), in the South Pacific, c.2,200 mi (3,540 km) W of Chile, to which it belongs. ) is a small, lone island located in thesoutheastern Pacific closer to Chile than to Tahiti. It forms thesoutheast point of the Polynesian triangle The Polynesian Triangle is a region of the Pacific Ocean anchored by three island groups: Hawai‘i, Easter Island (Rapa Nui) and New Zealand. The many island cultures within this vast triangle speak Polynesian languages which are classified by linguists as part of the and represents the farthestknown advance to the east of the migration of seafaring farmers andfishers out of Southeast Asia and into the open Pacific. The question ofhow this distant speck of land was discovered and settled is thereforeembedded in the larger issue of how early voyagers managed to work theirway eastward across the ocean against the direction of the trade windflow. In 1769 Captain James Cook (1968: 154) raised this issue during hisfirst voyage to the Pacific. Noting the similarity of Tahitian wordswith those gathered by earlier explorers from islands as far west asIndonesia, he concluded that the Tahitians must have stemmed from the`East Indias'. Yet Cook, ever the practical seaman, wondered howtheir ancestors could have sailed canoes so far to the east against thetrade winds. Tupaia, the Tahitian savant sa��vant?n.1. A learned person; a scholar.2. An idiot savant.[French, learned, savant, from Old French, present participle of savoir, to know who had joined the expeditionas native geographer and cultural intermediary, laid the captain'sdoubts to rest when he explained how Tahitians returning from voyagesmade to the west exploited spells of westerly winds that blow during theAustral aus��tral?adj.Of, relating to, or coming from the south.[Latin austrlis, from auster, austr-, south. summer to sail east back to their home island. This led Cook tosuggest that Tahiti and its neighbours had been settled by canoevoyagers who used these westerlies to work their way eastward, island byisland. The idea that such seasonal winds played a crucial role in Pacificmigration was widely shared by later European explorers and othernautically informed visitors who often referred to them as summermonsoons. However, it largely faded from consciousness as voyagingcanoes disappeared from most Polynesian islands and Westerners turnedfrom sail to steam. In the mid 1900s Heyerdahl (1952; 1978: 332) ignoredthe tropical westerlies altogether and declared that the east-west flowof what he mistakenly called the `permanent' trade winds andaccompanying currents had prevented early voyagers from sailing eastinto the ocean, and that Polynesia must instead have been settled fromthe Americas by voyagers pushed westward into the Pacific by wind andcurrent. Several years later Sharp (1956) demoted Polynesian explorersto the status of hapless castaways. Although agreeing with the orthodoxview that they had come from the west, he asserted that their canoes andwayfinding techniques were too crude and untrustworthy for deliberateexploration and colonization. Instead he proposed that Polynesia hadbeen settled accidentally through a long series of involuntary drift andundirected exile voyages. These challenges to a poorly defined orthodoxy of intentionalwest-east migration stimulated experimental research on voyaging. In themid 1960s I conducted sea trials with Nalehia, a 13-m reconstructedHawaiian double canoe, to measure the performance of such craft (Finney1967; Horvath & Finney 1969). During the late 1960s and early 1970sWard and his colleagues simulated drift voyaging by computer to testSharp's accidental settlement hypothesis (Levison et al. 1973; Wardet al. 1976). From 1976 through 1987 my colleagues and I sailedHokule'a, a 19-m, double-hulled voyaging canoe constructed forexperimental sea trials, on three voyages through Polynesia in order toinvestigate how voyaging canoes sailed and traditional wayfinding workedon sailing routes recorded in legend and/or indicated by other evidence(Finney 1977; 1994; 1996). More recently a team led by Irwin built uponthe previous computer simulations by programming virtual canoes to sailaround the Pacific in order to test scenarios of exploration andcolonization (Irwin 1989; 1992; Irwin et al. 1990). These initiatives contradicted Heyerdahl's and Sharp'sarbitrary limits on Polynesian voyaging capabilities and theirrespective migration theories, and have helped to put intentionalvoyaging firmly back into discussions of Polynesian prehistory prehistory,period of human evolution before writing was invented and records kept. The term was coined by Daniel Wilson in 1851. It is followed by protohistory, the period for which we have some records but must still rely largely on archaeological evidence to (Finney1996; Green 1998; 2000; Kirch 2000: 238-45; Rolett 1999: 250-62; Weisler1997; 1998). However, actual and virtual experimental voyaging differsignificantly in one particularly important aspect that relates directlyto the question of sailing to Rapa Nui. Whereas Hokule'a sails withwinds that develop sequentially as part of synoptic syn��op��tic? also syn��op��ti��caladj.1. Of or constituting a synopsis; presenting a summary of the principal parts or a general view of the whole.2. a. Taking the same point of view.b. weather systems, thewinds that digitally powered Ward's and Irwin's virtual canoeswere randomly selected each new day from a dataset of wind observationsmade from 1854 to 1952 and compiled for each month of the year byfive-degree squares of latitude and longitude latitude and longitudeCoordinate system by which the position or location of any place on the Earth's surface can be determined and described. Latitude is a measurement of location north or south of the Equator. . Furthermore, althoughWard's team employed the full dataset to simulate drift voyagesstarting twice each day of the year, and altered the direction and speedof the drifting virtual canoes according to according toprep.1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.2. In keeping with: according to instructions.3. daily changes in wind andcurrent, Irwin's team selected winds only from January and July,sailed their virtual canoes over currentless seas and apparently did notvary canoe speed with each new day's wind. The resultant stochasticvoyages therefore look unrealistic when compared with actual voyagessailed with sequential winds. Above all they fail to capture the essenceof Polynesian seamanship sea��man��ship?n.Skill in navigating or managing a boat or ship.seamanshipNounskill in navigating and operating a shipNoun 1. : using spells of favourable winds fromseasonally varying weather systems to sail where one wants to go. Mangareva and the winter westerlies A wide range of evidence indicates that Polynesians settled RapaNui, perhaps as early as 800 AD, and suggests a departure from somewherein Central East Polynesia (CEP CEPcongenital erythropoietic porphyria. CEPabbr.congenital erythropoietic porphyria ), the region composed of the Cook,Society, Henua `Enana (Marquesas), Tuamotu and Austral Islands (Bahn& Flenley 1992: 38-68; Green 1998; 2000; Hagelberg 1994; Kirch 2000:230-38; Pietrusewsky & Ikehara-Quebral 2000; Van Tilburg 1994:43-6). Whatever the particular island of departure, voyagers headingeast from anywhere in CEP would have faced the same basic problem ofsailing against the trade-wind direction as had previous generations ofseafarers For Seafarers International Union and affiliates, see Seafarers International Union of North America. ''Note: This article title may be easily confused with The Seafarer. in their long migrations eastward. With respect to the trades,Rapa Nui lies far upwind: 2300 nautical miles from Tahiti (1 nm equals1.85 km), 2000 nm from Hiva'oa, 1850 nm from Rapa and 1400 nm fromMangareva (FIGURE 1). [Figure 1 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Attempting the arduous and time-consuming task of tacking avoyaging canoe into the easterly trade winds and accompanying seas asfar east as Rapa Nui would have been out of character for Polynesiansailors. Judging from ethnographic and ethnohistorical sources as wellas experience gained in sailing Hokule'a around Polynesia, theywould have instead employed spells of westerly winds to explore the seasfar beyond CEP. Westerly winds flowing across tropical Polynesia may bedivided into summer and winter westerlies. Summer westerlies frequentlyinterrupt the trades in the Western Pacific, but become more and moreattenuated the farther one sails into the Eastern Pacific and seldomextend beyond CEP. In contrast, the winter westerlies, by whichHokule'a was sailed 1250 nm from Samoa east to Tahiti duringJuly-August of 1996, regularly extend beyond CEP as a consequence of themovement of low-pressure systems from west to east across the midlatitudes of the South Pacific (FIGURE 2). From late fall through winterto early spring, troughs (weather fronts) frequently extend north intothe trade wind zone from these migrating lows. These troughs cause thesurface wind flow to shift anti-clockwise through north, west, south andthen back to east as the front approaches and then passes. As thesewinds, including those blowing from slightly east of north, allowvessels to sail eastward without tacking they are commonly calledwesterlies in opposition to the southeast trade winds. They offer aquasi-predictable means for probing far to the east, particularly alongthe southern fringe of the tropics tropics,also called tropical zone or torrid zone, all the land and water of the earth situated between the Tropic of Cancer at lat. 23 1-2°N and the Tropic of Capricorn at lat. 23 1-2°S. where they are most prevalent. [Figure 2 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] At 27 [degrees] S Latitude Rapa Nui lies just outside the tropics.Its weather is therefore markedly seasonal, alternating between warm,dry summers dominated by easterlies and cool, rainy winters withfrequent westerlies. Fourteen hundred nm west by north lies Mangareva,the closest permanently inhabited island to Rapa Nui. At 23 [degrees] S,it is frequently exposed to winter westerlies, and therefore well placedfor launching exploratory probes to the east. Add to this the multiplelines of evidence linking Rapa Nui with Mangareva detailed by Green(1998; 2000), and Weisler's (1998) demonstration that Mangareva wasonce joined in a voyaging sphere with Pitcairn and Henderson, tinyislands located several hundreds of miles closer to Rapa Nui, and itbecomes apparent that Mangareva with its outliers stand out as the mostlikely region whence sailed those who discovered and settled Rapa Nui. Closing the Polynesian Triangle During five voyages made from Hawai'i between 1976 and 1995Hokule'a sailed throughout much of Polynesia, visiting six tropicalarchipelagos as well as Aotearoa at the southwestern tip of thePolynesian Triangle. Yet one island was conspicuously missing from thisodyssey: Rapa Nui at the triangle's southeastern tip. Finally, inthe late 1990s the Hawaiians decided to take up the challenge of sailingto this easternmost outpost of the Polynesia and thereby to `close thetriangle' as a fitting climax to 25 years of voyaging sinceHokule'a's launching. However, although Nainoa Thompson Charles Nainoa Thompson is a Native Hawaiian navigator and the executive director of the Polynesian Voyaging Society. He is best known as the first Hawaiian to practice the ancient Polynesian art of navigation since the 14th century, having navigated two double-hulled canoes (the , themaster Hawaiian navigator in charge of the voyage, accepted Mangareva asthe logical departure point for the drive east to Rapa Nui, he rejectedthe strategy of using winter westerlies to sail there. Instead, heproposed to tack Hokule'a into the easterly trade winds, and tomake that feasible by replacing the canoe's Polynesian-style sailswith Western-style racing sails especially designed for windwardsailing. A severe navigational challenge lay behind his decision. RapaNui's discoverers had one advantage denied to contemporaryvoyagers. The island was then an undisturbed mecca for birds, includingthose helpful to wayfinders: boobies (Sula dactylatra), frigate frigate(frĭg`ĭt), originally a long, narrow nautical vessel used on the Mediterranean, propelled by either oars or sail or both. Later, during the 18th and early 19th cent. birds(Fregata minor) and six species of terns (Steadman 1995: 1126). As theseland-nesting sea birds regularly fly out to sea in search of fish, theirdetection by alert voyagers would have significantly extended the rangeat which the island could have been detected. For example, E. Pearthree& A. di Piazza (pers. comm. 2000) report from the relativelyundisturbed Line Islands that groups of 5-7 frigate birds may indicateland up to 75-90 nm away, and groups of 2-3 masked boobies up to 100 nmaway. The sight of such `navigator birds' would therefore haveenabled early explorers who ventured east far beyond Mangareva and itsoutliers to sense the presence of Rapa Nui well before they could haveactually seen it. However, once the first settlers and their rats landed these birdswere at risk. Over the centuries, direct predation predationForm of food getting in which one animal, the predator, eats an animal of another species, the prey, immediately after killing it or, in some cases, while it is still alive. Most predators are generalists; they eat a variety of prey species. , habitat destruction Habitat destruction is a process of land use change in which one habitat-type is removed and replaced with another habitat-type. In the process of land-use change, plants and animals which previously used the site are displaced or destroyed, reducing biodiversity. and more recent environmental insults have done their damage, and fewremnants of the once abundant sea-bird populations have survived, andthose mostly nest on small offshore islands (Steadman et al. 1994;Steadman 1995). When Nainoa visited the island prior to the voyage hesaw hardly any terns or other navigationally useful birds flying out tosea. Today navigators cannot count on birds to expand the limited targetpresented by Rapa Nui. They must be prepared to sight the islanddirectly. Even when sailing in absolutely clear weather, finding Rapa Nuiwithout navigational aids would not be easy. The roughly triangularisland measures only 16x18x24 km, rises at its highest point to just 510m above sea level and stands alone in the ocean without a surrounding orscreening archipelago of islands to make land-finding easier. Sailingduring mid-winter to have the best chance of catching the westerliescould make it even more difficult to find the island, as the strongpapakina westerlies prevalent that time of year often bring rain andheavy cloud cover. Since Nainoa needed to observe the stars every nightto be sure to stay on course, he was worried about missing the islandwhile sailing fast before heavy winds and under overcast skies thatblocked any view of the stars and made it difficult to spot land. Instead of risking the mid-winter westerlies and accompanyingweather conditions, Nainoa decided to leave Mangareva during the earlyspring when he expected that the intense westerlies of mid-winter wouldhave died down, and then to tack into the trade winds that he hopedwould begin blowing by then. That would allow him and his co-navigatorsto take advantage of generally clear trade wind skies to make thenaked-eye star observations needed to bring the canoe within sight rangeof the island. First they planned to sail from Mangareva to Pitcairn,and then continue on to Rapa Nui's latitude. Once there they wouldstart making long tacks back and forth across that latitude line untilthey estimated the canoe was 300 nm from the island. Then they wouldmake short, closely-spaced tacks in order to maximize chances ofspotting the island as they slowly zigzagged toward it. The navigatorsplanned to orient themselves, set the heading for each tack and steerprimarily by celestial observations keyed to their conceptual starcompass, and to keep track of how far they were north or south of RapaNui's latitude by estimating the height of key stars as thesepassed the meridian north and south of the canoe. However, Nainoa realized that tacking Hokule'a into theeasterly trades could take a very long time, particularly if theyemployed the Polynesian sails used on previous voyages. These arewell-adapted for reaching across the wind, but not for sailing hard towindward (FIGURE 3). With them Hokule'a can efficiently sail onlyup to about 75 [degrees] off the wind, requiring that she be tacked backand forth almost 400 nm to make good 100 nm directly to windward. SinceRapa Nui lies 1400 nm from Mangareva this would mean sailing over morethan 5000 nm of ocean if the voyage were made tacking directly intotrade winds blowing from the direction of Rapa Nui. In order to avoidforcing the canoe to windward for upwards of two months, or perhaps evenlonger if the winds were particularly light, Nainoa replaced thecanoe's Polynesian sails with Western racing sails designed so thatHokule'a could be efficiently and expeditiously ex��pe��di��tious?adj.Acting or done with speed and efficiency. See Synonyms at fast1.ex tacked to windward(FIGURE 4). The new rig promised to cut the trip down to a moremanageable 35 or so days. [Figure 3-4 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The sail change was publicly announced and justified on the basisof expediency and safety. However, the willingness to make such adrastic change must also be considered in the context of the evolvingmission of Hokule'a. Although the Nalehia project of 1965-66 hadbeen structured as an initiative in experimental archaeology Experimental archaeology employs a number of different methods, techniques, analyses, and approaches in order to generate and test hypotheses or an interpretation, based upon archaeological source material, like ancient structures or artifacts. (Coles1979), for many Hawaiians who sailed the canoe it was also a culturalreawakening. Therefore, seven years later when my colleagues and Iformed the Polynesian Voyaging Society The Polynesian Voyaging Society (PVS) is a non-profit research and educational corporation based in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. PVS was established to research and perpetuate traditional Polynesian voyaging methods. to build and test Hokule'a,we deliberately linked cultural revival with experimental voyaging inorder to make the new project more meaningful to Hawaiians and otherPolynesians. After initial difficulties, experimental testing andcultural revival meshed together synergistically syn��er��gis��tic?adj.1. Of or relating to synergy: a synergistic effect.2. Producing or capable of producing synergy: synergistic drugs.3. . Demonstrating thecapability of voyaging canoes and traditional navigation methods servedthe cause of cultural revival as well as that of research, and the driveof the Hawaiians to sail to new islands in turn furnished valuable newdata and insights. However, after completion of the third major voyagein 1987 the main experimental goals had been reached and the projectbegan focussing on cultural revival and education. With this shift crew members felt free to experiment with the sailrig, adding a Western jib and mizzen staysail stay��sail?n. NauticalA triangular sail hoisted on a stay.staysailNouna sail fastened on a stayNoun 1. to the two Polynesiansails to make the canoe sail faster and handle more easily. Thesubsequent adoption of a Western Bermuda rig designed for windwardperformance can therefore be seen as a logical extension of a trendalready under way, as well as a change thought necessary to be sure ofbeing able to make the pilgrimage to Rapa Nui. The voyage After sailing from Hawai'i to Henua `Enana, and then aroundthe Tuamotus Hokule'a arrived at Mangareva on 29 August 1999.During the three weeks of preparations and waiting that followed, theanticipated trade winds failed to appear. When it came time to leave on21 September northerly winds brought by an approaching weather frontwere blowing. These offered a tempting opportunity to make some quickeasting east��ing?n.1. The difference in longitude between two positions as a result of movement to the east.2. Progress toward the east.Eastward (that is from left to right) reading of grid values on a map. , but were accompanied by partially cloudy weather that was lessthan ideal for navigation. After some hesitation, Nainoa gave the wordand Hokule'a headed for Pitcairn located several days' sailslightly to the south of east. Finding this tiny rock of an island was a challenging exercise thatmoved the Hawaiians almost 300 nm closer to Rapa Nui. After a brief stopthey set sail again, abandoning, temporarily at least, their tackingstrategy and instead reached across the freshening northerlies directlyfor Rapa Nui (FIGURE 5). [Figure 5 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This northerly wind flow was caused by a low-pressure systemapproaching from the west and a slow-moving high blocking it immediatelyto the east. To the delight of those dreading weeks of tacking, for thenext five days the canoe stayed in front of the low as they continuedreaching across the northerlies. On the night of 27-28 September, afteronly six days at sea, the navigators estimated that Hokule'a hadpassed the halfway point to Rapa Nui. When the wind subsequentlyincreased to around 25 knots (nm/hr) and the canoe started making sevenknots there was talk that if the northerlies held for several more daysHokule'a would soon be within 300 nm of the island. Then, if theweather front passed and the trades began blowing, they could zigzag thecanoe tightly across the latitude line of Rapa Nui so as not to miss theisland. However, the front overtook the canoe on following night, givingthem only one more day of good sailing as the wind veered throughnorthwest, west and southwest with the frontal passage. Unfortunately, by the next day, 30 September, the winds wereextremely light and variable. They had apparently sailed into theSouthern Subtropical sub��trop��i��cal?adj.Of, relating to, or being the geographic areas adjacent to the Tropics.subtropicalAdjectiveof the region lying between the tropics and temperate lands Divergence Zone, the shifting area where cool airdescending to the surface from the upper atmosphere spreads slowly invarious directions. Hokule'a had been sailing along a rhumb line rhumb linen.The path of a ship that maintains a fixed compass direction, shown on a map as a line crossing all meridians at the same angle. Also called loxodrome.Noun 1. course from Pitcairn to Rapa Nui until forced to the northeast by thesouthwesterlies of the frontal passage, and the light southerly breezesthat followed during 2-3 October. Then on 4 October the wind startblowing lightly from the northeast, allowing the canoe to be turnedsouthward. Nainoa was torn between heading southeast directly towardwhere he reckoned Rapa Nui was located, or sailing due south to reachRapa Nui's latitude line in order to be in a position to starttacking eastward in case the trades finally started blowing. That hecould only estimate the relative positions of the canoe and Rapa Nuicomplicated the choice. After some agonizing, the navigator decided totrust in the wind, and put the canoe onto a southeast heading, sailingacross the northeasterlies toward where he thought Rapa Nui lay. Then came the rainy, cloudy weather that Nainoa had wanted toavoid. The night of 7-8 October was dark and totally overcast without astar to be seen. Only by steering relative to the big swells that hadstarting marching up from the southwest was the crew able keep the canoeheading southeast. Particularly when the wind freshened that night, theexcitement of nearing Rapa Nui mounted, as did apprehension aboutsailing right past it in the dark. Towards dawn Nainoa asked crewman MaxYarawamai and co-navigator Bruce Blankenfeld to go forward to mount abow watch for land as the sun began to illuminate the horizon just underthe thick, dark overcast. Nainoa and the other co-navigator, ChadBaybayan, remained at the stern, scanning the horizon aft in case theyhad overshot overshotprotruding.overshot fetlocksee knuckling over.overshot jawSee brachygnathia. Called also parrot mouth. the island. Upon searching the brightening eastern horizon,Max, who had been selected for the voyage because of his land-spottingabilities gained while growing up on the Micronesian atoll atoll:see coral reefs. atollCoral reef enclosing a lagoon. Atolls consist of ribbons of reef that may not be circular but that are closed shapes, sometimes miles across, around a lagoon that may be 160 ft (50 m) deep or more. of Ulithi,glimpsed a short black line on the horizon off to the northeast. Thiswas confusing as he had been searching for the volcanic peak ofTerevaka, yet knew that he now must be looking at a flat bit of land.Not until the outline of Terevaka began to emerge from the clouds waseverybody convinced that they had made landfall land��fall?n.1. The act or an instance of sighting or reaching land after a voyage or flight.2. The land sighted or reached after a voyage or flight. on Rapa Nui. Max hadseen the top of the cliffs of Ronokau crater at the extreme southwesternend of the island. By timing the departure from Mangareva for late September, Nainoahad avoided the strong mid-winter westerlies, and except for the lastfew days clear patches of sky enabled him and his co-navigators to makeneeded star sights. But the expected trades never materialized. Instead,northerly and westerly winds enabled the Hawaiians to sail Hokule'adirectly toward Rapa Nui for much of the way. Then, after working thecanoe through the light variables that followed, they were sailingparallel to the unseen island when it was spotted at first light. Afterexpecting a long voyage and great difficulty in locating Rapa Nui, thecrew was stunned to have made such a quick crossing and to have foundthe island so easily. Heretofore Nainoa had always resisted spiritualexplanations for the canoe's remarkable success at always beingable to reach an island destination. This time he willingly gaveultimate credit for the swift passage and direct landfall to theaccumulated mana of Hokule'a. Discussion Although not planned as such, the voyage turned out to be avaluable voyaging experiment after all. Had Hokule'a been rigged asformerly, I estimate that she could still have made it to Rapa Nui asher previous sails were well-adapted for reaching across beam winds suchas those encountered en route. Brad Evans For the fictional video game character, see Wild Arms 2.Brad Evans (b. 20 April 1985 [1]) is an American soccer player from Phoenix, Arizona [2] who currently plays for Columbus Crew in the MLS. He was a member of the U.S. (1999: 47) shares this opinionon the basis of his recent computer simulations of canoe voyages betweenPitcairn and Rapa Nui. By employing sequential winds remotely sensed bysatellite every six hours and recorded for each 2 [degrees] square oflatitude and longitude, along with data on canoe performance and sailingstrategy derived from the Nalehia and Hokule'a trials, he has beenable realistically to simulate the tracks of virtual canoes sailing toRapa Nui as synoptic weather systems bringing favourable winds unfold.Moreover, in a sense the experiment of using seasonal winds to sail toRapa Nui had already been conducted a century-and-a-half earlier byGeorge Palmer (1849-1854), captain of the Nantucket whaling shipNavigator. In July 1851 and again in July 1852, after taking on food andwater at Pitcairn he sailed his ship directly toward Rapa Nui, usingmid-winter westerlies to get within sight range of the island in 8.5 and7.5 days, respectively (FIGURES 6 & 7). (Navigator's fastpassages over the 1125 nm separating Pitcairn and Rapa Nui reflected theintensity of the westerlies that prevailed on both crossings, but it isalso worth noting that the paucity of position fixes on the secondcrossing was caused by the bad weather that can accompany these winds.) Nonetheless, the success of Hokule'a, Navigator andEvans' virtual canoes in sailing from Mangareva and Pitcairn toRapa Nui with seasonal spells of westerlies does not rule out thepossibility that canoes sailing from other islands could also havereached Rapa Nui. Contra Irwin (1992: 93), even Henua `Enana way off tothe northwest cannot be absolutely eliminated from consideration.Caviedes & Waylen (1993) have argued from data on the major ElNino--Southern Oscillation event of 1982-1983 that the massive outbreaksof westerly winds that occur during such basin-wide disturbances wouldhave allowed `Enanan voyagers direct access to Rapa Nui. Nonetheless,the consilience Con`sil´i`encen. 1. Act of concurring; coincidence; concurrence.The consilienceof inductions takes place when one class of facts coincides with an induction obtained from another different class.- Whewell. of evidence linking Mangareva with Rapa Nui, along withthe demonstrated feasibility of employing seasonal westerlies to saileast by south to Rapa Nui, supports the hypothesis that this was theroute and means by which early voyagers extended the Polynesian frontierso far to the east. From their point of view the Hawaiians had indeed closed thePolynesian Triangle, a feat celebrated at Rapa Nui's Anakena Baywhere the legendary founder Hatu Matu'a had landed, and then againback in Hawai'i when in March 2000 Hokule'a landed at Kualoa,the historic site on the shores of O'ahu's Kane'ohe Baywhere the canoe had been launched a quarter-century earlier.Nonetheless, as much as the Rapa Nui people appreciated the coming ofHokule'a, the metaphor under which she had sailed there mystified mys��ti��fy?tr.v. mys��ti��fied, mys��ti��fy��ing, mys��ti��fies1. To confuse or puzzle mentally. See Synonyms at puzzle.2. To make obscure or mysterious. more than a few of them. With good humour Noun 1. good humour - a cheerful and agreeable moodamiability, good humor, good temperhumour, mood, temper, humor - a characteristic (habitual or relatively temporary) state of feeling; "whether he praised or cursed me depended on his temper at the time"; , one woman protested to theHawaiians that instead of closing the triangle `you have opened it forus', meaning that Hokule'a's voyage had reconnected themwith their ancient voyaging heritage and the rest of Polynesia. Acknowledgements. Through a collaborative effort between thePolynesian Voyaging Society, the B.P. Bishop Museum and the Universityof Hawai'i satellite data on the canoe's track and on windconditions encountered that were organized by Bernard Kilonsky, andentries in an onboard chronicle written by Sam Low, were posted daily onthe web at http://leahi.edu/org/pvs After Hokule'a's arrivalat Rapa Nui navigators Nainoa Thompson and Bruce Blankenfeld, lookoutMax Yarawamai and other crew members, as well as Sergio Rapa, Niko Haoaand other residents, were interviewed. Bruce Blakenfeld, Roger Green,Erik Pearthree, Anne di Piazza, Barry Rolett, David Steadman and ananonymous reviewer commented on an earlier draft. Bernard Kilonskyhelped develop FIGURES 5-7. Richard Rhodes drew all the figures. References BAHN, P. & J. FLENLEY. 1992. Easter Island earth island.London: Thames & Hudson. CAVIEDES, C.N. & P.R. WAYLEN. 1993. Anomalous westerly windsduring El Nino events: the discovery and colonization of Easter Island,Applied Geography 13: 123-34. COLES, J.M. 1979. Experimental archaeology. 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