Daily Speculations
 |
James Sogi
Philosopher, Juris Doctor, surfer, trader, investor, musician, black belt, sailor, semi-centenarian. He lives on the mountain in Kona, Hawaii, with his family. |
6/9/2005
Different Smarts, by
James Sogi
When I was younger, I knew a heck of a lot more than I know now. In fact, how little I know appears to me over and over in a many many places.
Last weekend I was privileged to be aboard the Hokualakai, a beautiful and powerful 57 foot traditional Hawaiian sailing double canoe and had a chance to talk story with the Captain, designer and the first mate. The first mate has no formal education but has over thirty years experience learning from master navigator Mau Pialug, the native navigator chronicled in Lewis's We the Navigators. He was the master lasher who tied all the lashings that bind the entire canoe together without metal fasteners. There are hundreds of different knots, lashings, bindings and ties keeping the nets, rigging and wooden beams together. Each knot has a purpose, as a rope railing, a net, a stay, a fiddlehead, a diamond lashing, a cross lashing, binding the steering sweep, the running rigging, the mast lashing, the figure-eight. He taught me the angles on the canoe match the angles of the star patterns, the time the half moon is on the bottom and tracks the same path as the sun allowing night shots for navigation, the time to head west on the way to the Marquesas, the color of the ocean half way to Tahiti, rigging a sea head, the way the spirit of life fills the body the way water fills and empty gourd. He told me how Mau can call the porpoise and the birds to help him navigate.
Many words of wisdom in unexpected places about things to be learned nowhere else. Handy things to know for those whose life is surrounded by the sea. There is so much to learn but so little time and I know so little about so much.
c
Jim Sogi, May 2005
(address is not clickable)