Imagine an ocean of islands spanning ten million square miles. Now imagine you must navigate that world without charts or instruments.

The island was tiny. As we sailed closer, we smelled the sweet aroma of land. We saw a crowd on the beach.

Chad Baybayan stands about five feet, eight inches tall. He has a swimmer’s body, suggesting a capability of delivering powerful strokes and a strong finishing kick.

To a modern sailor’s eye, she appears strange. Her twin hulls are joined by laminated wooden crossbeams.

Hokule’a is a replica of the vessels used by Polynesians to settle the Pacific Ocean a thousand years before the arrival of Europeans.

On Feb. 26, 2000, we departed Tahiti, bound for the big Island of Hawaii. As we sailed beyond the reef and into the deep ocean, the sea turned azure.