On Day 2 Leg 3 of the Moananuiākea voyage Hōkūleʻa crewmembers visited the local Juneau NOAA National Weather Service station. They met with the NOAA team, who presented their local forecast models that match our (Leg 3) tentative sail plan. We were able to see wind, precipitation, temperature, and current tide modeling from their data systems, it provided great insight into weather expectations for departure out of Juneau.

Captain Mark Ellis mapped out the tentative sail plan with the NOAA team for Angoon, Kake, Petersburg, Wrangell, and Ketchikan. The NOAA team was able to provide information based on their models and suggestions from their experience on the sail plan route. They emphasized that native tribes in Tlingit and Haida country situated their areas in fairly calm areas and smartly so. The indigenous knowledge of the Tlingit and Haida in these areas is evident geographically in this way. It was really amazing to see these Western models and institutions recognizing this. The NOAA team also recommended that crew connect with local knowledge experts because their daily observations from generations of living in these places offer weather information that NOAA models do not touch upon. The integration of these knowledge systems was an amazing partnership to understand risk and know when to push off the dock.

The crew is feeling the awakened spirit and are settling in with one another. Emotions are ebbing in and out like the rising and falling tide, all a beautiful part of the process here as ‘ohana wa‘a as we continue to support one another and take in the spirit of Tlingit and Haida.