Aloha mai kākou! Keili here,
Mahalo nui loa for clicking on this email and taking the time to read—it truly means a lot! Honestly, only a small percentage of cool people actually do that, and I’m stoked it’s you. ;)ʻ
If you’ve been following Ethnomads from the beginning, then you know it all started with us feeling a bit swallowed up and sloshed around by life—but holding tight to one thing: our shared dream of one day sailing the world together.
Not on some fancy-shmancy monohull, but a fully sustainable, menehune-made and operated vessel. We wanted to be as natural and connected to the elements as possible—like surfing Alaia, eating from your garden, or sleeping under the stars.
We’ve been working, learning, saving, breaking things (lol), learning more, and writing all along the way. Hopefully, people are learning from our mistakes, feeling inspired by our manini achievements, and—if there are any other lolo-heads out there wondering if anyone else wants to do things the hard way—here we stay.
Spoiler alert: it’s also the funner way. And honestly, the easier way if you don’t have kala for fancy gadgets—or for the fancy repairs they come with.
Almost exactly one year ago, we returned home from our voyage from California—over 2,500 nautical miles and 23 days (and 22 nights) at sea.
It was… a lot. LOL.
So yeah—we’ve been resting (duh!). But don’t judge us, okay? We’ve also been scheming.
Chris, with the help of some awesome friends, has completely refitted ʻAʻĀ with new rigging, a new mast, a new sail, new boom, new spar—new everything. And like all our renovations, it was as DIY, backyard-built, and reused/re-purposed as possible (aka… all the way).
She turned out beautiful, if I do say so myself.
We raised her new sail on the new Hawaiian sailing canoe rig—with equal-length spar and boom—for the very first time this morning. <3
Huge mahalo to our friends Justin Kalani and Ivana for letting us take over your garage and use your wood—it will be put to very good use!
As for the future…
Our plan is to sail inter-island this summer—traveling along the beautiful island chain of Hawaiʻi nei until we return home to the east shore of Oʻahu.
We’re planning to test sail the new rig tomorrow afternoon. We’ll post updates on Instagram for anyone interested in seeing how she handles! This new sail has a significantly larger surface area than our previous setups, so… we might be flying.
If all goes well, we’re hoping to be in Waimea Bay for Chris’s birthday next weekend and take off from there.
First stop: Kauaʻi,
my ancestral home and where my tūtū and ʻanake live.
This leg of the journey is especially close to my heart. I know my mom is probably scared (lol), but I also know she’s proud and excited to see what I’ll discover—under star-filled skies, in fearful moments, and all the beautiful unknowns.
I love searching for signs of her—and of all my kūpuna—in people, creatures, and especially in Moananuiākea. I'm bursting with excitement to spend more quality time with her, out in the open.
Throughout our passage, we’d love to connect with all our ʻohana on Big Island, Maui, Kauaʻi, and Molokaʻi! E ʻoluʻolu ʻoe, reach out! We hope to be sailing throughout the islands during the month of August.
And just a quick reminder: we create all our content—and these little ramblings—just for fun.
If you feel called to support our journey, even $7/month makes a big difference in helping us keep this dream alive: combining ancestral voyaging knowledge with modern DIY power to create something completely unique—and deeply tied to this ʻāina.
We hope to grow this dream, dedicate more time to it, and continue doing the fun, hard, and sometimes crazy things that make life beautiful.
Mahalo nui loa for reading, supporting, sharing, and believing in what we’re doing.
Love you all!
Mahalo piha,
Keili
