Bruce says the dominant SE swell has diminished, and t he largest swell is now coming from the E. Hawai'iloa has been riding well over the swells and taking on very little water. Hawai'iloa has sailed a slightly more easterly heading than Hokule'a over the past 24 hours. The navigators try to stay east of their reference course so that they will arrive upwind of their destination, in this case Huahine or Tahiti. The two canoes are now at about the same longitude, with Hokule'a about fifty miles ahead. On Feb. 21, the canoes should have winds from the east at 10-15 knots.
Satellite photos show clouds over or near the canoes.
The crew will fly to Tahiti in early March to join the canoe and sa il with the fleet to Ra'iatea, Taha'a, Tahiti, Nukuhiva, and Hawai'i. Hawai'iloa's navigators estimated the canoe to be at 5 degrees 30'N, 44.5 miles east of the reference course. Hokule'a was in the middle of another rain squall, so communication wa s difficult, with heavy static on the radio. Heavy cloud cover the night of Feb. 21, but enough patchy clearing to steer by celestial bodies. Hokupa'a, the North Star, was also visible, about 4-5 degrees above the horizon and directly astern as the canoes headed south.