07/27/2026
50 year anniversary of the maiden voyage of Hōkūleʻa.
In July of 1976, I was an artist selling my paintings every weekend at the Honolulu Zoo Fence. A couple of years earlier I had purchased my first “professional” camera, a Minolta SRT101, to shoot local landscape and sailing pictures that I could use as reference images for my paintings. As I was actively producing a growing collection of sailing images, the Waikiki Yacht Club, would occasionally ask me to take photos for their Club magazine, “The Windward Beat”. July 26, 1976, exactly 50 years ago, was one of those times. The club had secured a spot for me on a boat that was going to Diamond Head where I would be able to photograph the historic homecoming of the double hulled, Polynesian sailing canoe, Hōkūleʻa.
The 61’ vessel, built on the Windward Side of Oahu in 1975, had recently completed her first long distance voyage to Tahiti. During the 2,700 mile trip, the crew only relied on traditional, non-instrument, navigation techniques. The voyage proved the long debated claim that the early Polynesian voyagers were in fact, able to purposely sail great distances, to intended destinations over open ocean. And they did it hundreds of years before the birth of Columbus and the invention of navigational instruments. Their return to Honolulu marked the completion of Hōkūleʻa's maiden voyage to Tahiti and back.
I consider myself very fortunate to have been one of the thousands of spectators at Diamond Head that day, and then to experience her final arrival at Magic Island where thousands more were waiting to welcome the crew home.
Photos bt Phil Uhl
