Seafarer prepares to set sail
This article was originally published in Pacific Daily News.
Next month, local seafarer Ignacio Camacho will head to Taiwan to begin a trip more than two years in the making.
The voyage, part of German adventurer Burghard Pieske’s Rapa Nui Experiment, is part of a longer trip to retrace the settlement of the Pacific. He will sail from Taiwan to Easter Island, locally known as “Rapa Nui.”
Pieske has constructed a roughly 34-foot sakman built in the Mariana style. Although built with modern materials and technology, the proa still relies on the traditional shunting method of seafaring used by the Chamorros for centuries before the arrival of the Spaniards.
The voyage is separated into legs between islands and island nations. For each leg, a local navigator from the islands will accompany Pieske.
Camacho, a member of local seafaring group Traditions About Seafaring Islands, will accompany Pieske for the first and longest leg, from Taiwan to Guam.
For Camacho and TASI president Frank Cruz, the voyage is an opportunity to tell the story of the Chamorro people.
“Being able to do this just proves to the world again that our people could have done this,” Cruz said. “And it’s not an impossibility as some people claim.”
Migration from the east
The voyage challenges a popular belief that the Pacific was settled from west to east.
Given that western vessels sailed in that direction with the wind, the leading theory proposed that was the only possible route for settlement.
But proas, and other similar water crafts, sail against the wind, turning the old theory on its head.
Couple that with genetic evidence that suggests Chamorros descended from inhabitants of Southeast Asia, and the migration-from-the-east theory seems more realistic.
The voyage also recognizes the efforts of TASI and other seafaring groups on island to revitalize seafaring and navigating traditions that were killed off when the Spanish arrived.
During the early years of colonization, many of the Chamorros’ vessels were destroyed and navigators were killed in order to keep the population subdued, Cruz said.
Efforts to bring back those traditions began in the 1970s.
In the late ‘90s, Cruz said, a group of people at the University of Guam made it their mission to explore Guam’s seafaring traditions.
The same thing was happening elsewhere in the Pacific at that time. In Hawaii, Micronesian navigator Mau Pialug was teaching navigation to the Polynesian Voyaging Society. In the South Pacific, island navigators were creating a similar seafaring renaissance.
“It wasn’t necessarily connected, but it just so happened the movement happened at the same time,” Cruz said.
The efforts made by groups in Guam are bringing those formerly lost traditions back into the mainstream, allowing the island’s youth to grow up with the traditional methods of navigation and seafaring.
“I guess the simplest way to put it is seafaring and navigation are part of the roots of our identity,” Cruz said. “Without this knowledge, without this capability, we wouldn’t be here.”
“It’s extremely important to know what your past is so that we can continue forward and develop from there.”
Camacho and Pieske’s trip has already yielded some positive reactions outside of Guam.
Trials at sea
Last year, Camacho joined Pieske for four months of sea trials in the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe.
There, the two practiced sailing the ‘Ana Varu in rough seas.
‘Ana Varu refers to one of the pillars of heaven in the Tahitian tradition. It’s also the name of the star Betelgeuse within the belt of the constellation Orion. It’s also one of the primary navigational stars Camacho will using to guide the vessel to Guam.
During the sea trials, Camacho said, he encountered lots of interest in the project.
“They were fascinated by all the information about our traditions and the intent of the Rapa Nui Experiment,” Camacho said. “What that left me was the impression that — and other people in Guam would get the impression — that what we’re doing is very unique and the story we’re telling is a really special story.”
The voyage from Taiwan to Rapa Nui will take years, Camacho said.
The first leg is the longest — roughly 1,700 sea miles. Camacho is scheduled to arrive in Taiwan on March 2.
The two must then reassemble ‘Ana Varu and stock their provisions before setting off, also taking into account local weather conditions.
Camacho said they have “optimistically” planned for a sailing time of 21 days, but that’s very tentative.
“We like to say ‘well this looks like it’s gonna be 21 days, but you have to plan on at least twice that in order to be safe,” he said.
Issues such as wind conditions could prevent sailing, he said. Sailors need to be comfortable with not having an exact timeline.
“I think that’s probably one of the main things that we have a very difficult time adjusting to is this idea of ‘How long is it gonna be?’” Cruz said. “Well, we really don’t know. And we need to be comfortable with saying ‘We really don’t know.’”
Given that uncertainty, Camacho said he’s committed to the voyage despite any personal reservations.
“When you are taking this kind of venture anywhere … you cannot have your fear dictate what you do,” he said. “If you cannot reconcile with yourself that there’s no room for fear on the water, then you shouldn’t go at all.”
Once the sakman arrives in Guam, the vessel will remain here until Pieske continues on his route. Pieske himself will return to Germany until picking up the voyage again.
After Guam, Pieske’s tentative plan is to sail to somewhere in Micronesia from Guam and continue from there until ultimately reaching Rapa Nui.
Along the way, he’ll be picking up local seafarers to discuss their own traditions which Pieske will record.
That collaboration, Camacho said, is an important part of promoting the “Blue Continent” that spans the Pacific.
“It’s not this vast emptiness; it’s this huge area filled with many peoples and many nations,” Camacho said.
That perception of emptiness is one the voyage and organizations like TASI are working against.
Camacho said the perception is that the Pacific is a “wet desert,” similar to thinking Africa is one vast desert.
In island societies where seafaring is still a primary mode of transportation, Cruz said, the perception of the ocean as a desert is foreign.
“They don’t look at the ocean as a desert, they look at it as a way to get to the next place,” he said. “It’s like a highway.”
Cruz and Camacho said residents curious about Guam’s seafaring traditions don’t need to travel from Taiwan to get the experience, they just have to drop by TASI’s guma’, or “canoe house,” at Paseo.
Visitors to the guma’ can get on a small proa and cross the channel at the Hagåtña Boat Basin.
“You get somebody here — man, woman, child — and we put them on one of our canoes and we just cross this little channel to the other side,” Camacho said. “That itself is an amazing experience for most people and that would be the beginning.”
Aside from just experiencing a ride on a canoe, visitors can learn about canoe building, sailing and navigation, Cruz said.
“Or … you can just come out and have fun.”