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    Connecting Lines
    Connecting Lines
    Connecting Lines
    Ebook179 pages2 hours

    Connecting Lines

    By Alec Hughes Pardo

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Back in my college days on Oahu, Hawai'I, during the 90', I learned the story of Eddie Aikau, Hawaiian surfer, lifeguard, and sailor who inspires me to this day. In 1978, Eddie took part in a trip on the Hokulea, the sailing traditional voyaging canoe that was built to recover the techniques of traditional Polynesian navigators. After an accidental capsize, he did not make it back after he went for help to rescue all crewmembers during this first voyage. Today this project of Hawaiian and traditional sailing has already fought against all odds and sailed numerous voyages to Tahiti and back only using the stars, birds and traditional "Wayfinding". Hawaiian traditional sailors have already successfully circumnavigated the world using science and ocean conservation to promote care for their pacific traditions and "care for island earth". So Eddie's story should never be forgotten, an it is an inspiration for all the Pacific Ocean´s community. As a Peruvian, I felt that we also should have had epic stories sailing at sea. Why not? Although traditional history emphasizes the legacy of the Incas or reminds western world that the "Kontiki" project reached Polynesia by drifting and sailing from east to west today gathers more of new information demonstrating that South American Sailors had connection with Polynesians. Also, Andean cultures, pre-Inca coastal and seafaring cultures are underestimated by traditional historians. That's how my experiences of seeking out more connections in the pacific went from a library investigation into "Connecting Lines. Pacific Islanders had reached South America and vice versa thru traditional sailing. These new scientifical updates behind these Polynesian wayfinders fascinating me and this was the tip of the iceberg. New research has found that Polynesia and the Pacific sailors went from west to east against the prevailing winds & currents. "Connecting lines" is the sum of events and experiences from sailing around the world having lived on Oahu and 20 years of research to revive sailing and wayfinding easily explained in an on technical manner. In this book, being a sailor for more than 40 years, I will tell you empirical fascinating data how ocean currents and winds are as old as the earth and how science, anthropology, new findings in history must be tied together. We embark on the story of Túpac Yupanqui, the Inca navigator who would have reached Mangareva and Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in the 15th century AD; using an amazing raft technology South American and Polynesian canoes. We will "connect lines" with genetic studies that indicate that a type of pre-Columbian chicken from Chile has Polynesian DNA; the sweet potato present throughout Polynesia is called "Kumara", as it is known as the same word in Quechua language amongst others. Another line to connect is how Māori ropes and knoted cords technology resembles the Peruvian "Quipus". I invite you to join this sailing trip that, I promise, you will not forget. Let´s Connect Lines and come on board.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCreaLibros
    Release dateJul 1, 2022
    ISBN9786124869594
    Connecting Lines

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      Book preview

      Connecting Lines - Alec Hughes Pardo

      portadilla

      You’ll probably be scared sometimes, scared more often, worried.

      You’ll hate it and absolutely despise the fact

      that you’re involved with it at a stormy bad time and when you get to the finish line,

      you will know why: because there is nothing like it. It is Sailing.

      Sir Peter Blake

      I had a dream when I was 22 years old that one day

      I would go to the region of ice and snow and go

      on and on until I reached one of the poles of the Earth.

      Sir Ernest Shackleton, the most famous ocean explorer who demonstrated how can we excel in our human endurance and coexistence in the worst conditions ever recorded

      What you have in that boat is your entire world.

      Back on solid ground, away from the intensity of the races,

      the world seems the same to you. If we could build an economy

      that would use things instead of depleting them, we could build a future.

      Ellen MacArthur, adventurer, engineer, sailor and founder of circular economy

      When these sails go up

      mountains fade away

      stars come out

      I’m finally free.

      It’s only the ocean and me.

      Jack Johnson, ocean advocate and singer

      who donates much of his productions to ocean conservation

      What we know is a drop of water, what we ignore is the immense ocean

      Isaac Newton

      Water is integral to the creation myths of ancient civilizations worldwide.

      What role did water play in the stories told by your ancestors?

      What role did water play in their ceremonies and rituals?

      In what ways has this relationship with water been passed down through time?

      What has been lost through time?

      Wallace J. Nichols, author of Blue Mind

      Now is no time to think of what you do not have.

      Think of what you can do with what there is.

      Ernest Hemingway, who found inspiration in the northern Peruvian coast with the sailing ancestors and traditional fishermen with whom we will start connecting lines

      This book funds the Peruvian Sailing and Ocean Society (PSOS) and contributes towards Pacific maritime history and oceanic preservation

      Connecting Lines

      Polynesian, Peru, and South American contact

      based on traditional sailing.

      Author

      @Alec Hughes Pardo

      [email protected]

      Instagram: @perupolinesia / @sea_lestial /

      @sociedadpaeruanadevelayelmar

      Editor (spanish version)

      © César Augusto Becerra Alvarado

      www.cesarbecerra.net

      [email protected]

      Translator

      José Antonio Villarán

      [email protected]

      Designer

      Felipe Esparza

      [email protected]

      Ilustrator

      Melissa Siles

      First digital edition in english

      ISBN eBook: 978-612-48695-9-4

      June 2022

      Dedication goes to my ocean circle

      To all my sailing ancestors

      To my grandfather Alec I, ‘Granf’ (†)

      To his son Alec II, my dad

      To Alec IV, my son

      To Rodrigo Bonifaz (†), whom I met in Hawai’i

      and who later was in coma, fighting for

      his life for years

      To Titi de Col (†), with whom we connected lines

      about Hawai’i, surfing and the traditional sailing

      To Eduardo Ruiz (†),

      teacher and a generous human being

      To Eugenio Oliveira (†),

      captain of La Punta and a great friend

      To Fernando Fernandini (†),

      my dearest uncle and true sailor who will await us on the other side of the ocean, and will welcome us on our eternal cruise.

      Uncle Fer, Connecting Lines is for sailors like you!

      To Julio Balbuena (†), friend of the sea and first buyer of an issue of Connecting Lines on July 28, 2020.

      Rest in peace, sailfer (sailor & surfer)

      ©Verónica Lanza

      About the author

      Alec Hughes

      Alec is peruvian and sails since he is 6 years old. He finished college studies at Hawai’i Pacific University in the 90s, and ever since he has been researching and documenting traditional sailing and polynesian links demonstrating the history and science behind Pacific seafarers. Alec works in Technology but his passion for the ocean let him in life circumnavigate the world sailing with his father and friends adding to the manuscript empirical knowledge behind Connecting Lines. He ended up finishing an MBA in Strategic Business Administration (PUCP and Maastricht S.Mgmt.). Today, Alec works at NCR Corp. in banking specializing in financial services and innovation. As a sailor, surfer and stand up paddler (#sailfer) he also actively participates in ocean conservation of the peruvian ocean and marine life. He founded the Peruvian Sailing & Ocean Society in which he promotes sailing. He recently came back to Hawai´i to present the printed version of this book after 20 years in order to build a new network with ocean friends and promote an ocean scholarship work for the future with the Pacific community. He has recently been condecorated for his services with the Peruvian Navy for his recent work in maritime tradition and shared values.

      ©Verónica Lanza

      The wind has changed

      A message to always try to sail beyond the horizon

      Sailing applies perfectly to life: in a sailboat you live at the mercy with the elements. The wind changes, as so does waves and all other conditions, making you flow with the elements and not the other way around. Each crew member assumes, without selfishness or presumptions, the task that corresponds to him so that the boat advances properly. The purpose in life, as in sailing, is to share this way of facing challenges and make it a legacy for other generations. We as humans should work, even more, as a team, at the mercy of nature. Let’s be wayfinders, as were the first ancient navigators of our planet and our ancestors of the Pacific Ocean. Let’s discover the navigator that we all carry inside our nature.

      INDEX

      Chapter 1

      The first connections

      Chapter 2

      Native seafarers

      Chapter 3

      The journey is possible

      Chapter 4

      Transoceanic connections

      Chapter V

      Manifesting it all

      Epilogue

      Timeline

      References

      Photo credits

      Before we head out to sea

      Why is it important to find our own wayfinder or sailor we all carry inside? Why is this important for what the world has become today? We are separating ourselves from nature with technology and not having a balance with it. As human beings, if we continue this way and do not pass our knowledge of sailing, seafaring skills and human connection with the ocean to following generations, we will be lost as species.

      Wade Davis, a National Geographic Explorer in residence and a genius as an anthropologist, quotes: The feeling of the past in the wind relates to the navigation practices of Polynesian wayfinders and the connection of this practice to ancestral knowledge. I love the idea of sometimes meeting Wade Davis, due he lived in Peru probably when I was in high school, but we, as students, always want to meet our masters. Commonly the student finds the master and I hope this happens one day to get to the nautical rope, a line, and connect this importance to why our ocean ancestors can teach us so much.

      I quote Wade again on this final thought: There is, indeed, a fire burning over the Earth, taking with it plants and animals, cultures, languages, ancient skills and visionary wisdom. Quelling this flame, and re-inventing the poetry of diversity is perhaps the most important challenge of our times. Davis has a wonderful scholarly list of speeches about the wayfinders and I invite you to sail into his legacy and listen to all that this master has to say to us.

      Let´s connect lines of our human nature with our sailing ancestry.

      Sailing carries an unsolved mystery of connection with the sea. The why a sailor goes out to sea,has to be answered. To become a sailor who needs to deal with danger, fighting against the sea and the wind, feeling cold and wet to the bone trying to survive in a small boat at risk of capsizing, and despite the fact that he swears and perjures that he will never return to the see: we always return. Sailing with the natural forces and Wayfinding yourself with the stars, birds, and swells are all part of the lines available to connect us all within. A sailor returns to the sea because when the storm passes a sensation of triumph arrives and it returns to the enchantment of feeling the breeze in the sails, moving forward appreciating as music only the whisper of his vessel similar to when your first caress the sea. Onboard a sailboat a continuous change is appreciated, the direction of the wind and its intensity varies constantly just as each wave is different and therefore the movement of the boat as well. The art of sailing consists in taking advantage of these changes through the correct, immediate and constant adjustment of the sails in their shapes and tensions and in the appropriate course, always trying to achieve the optimum point of navigation. This makes sailing something captivating and that is why the sailor returns.

      The sailor returns because the magic of a sunset on the high seas heralds the unexpected, just as the long-awaited arrival of dawn arrives loaded with enormous hope. We need the ocean and the ocean does not need us, this has been on throughout the planet´s existence. Let’s go for the sunset, west, or let´s leave for the sunrise, just how Polynesians thought and South Americans accordingly.

      Now we are ready to connect lines.

      Alec Hughes

      1

      THE FIRST CONNECTIONS

      How did I discover the connection between Peru and Polynesia?

      In 1999, during the trip around the world I did with my father aboard the Sealestial sailboat, we stopped in Pago Pago (American Samoa). As I was walking around the place, I saw a kid that looked Peruvian to me. I approached him and we talked in English. You can imagine how surprised I was when I found out his father was a fisherman that left Piura, got lost at sea and appeared in Samoa months later, about ten thousand kilometers from home. It was a quantic moment that allowed me to time travel some six years back, when I had begun to question myself about the ancestral linkages between Peru and Polynesia.

      It was an afternoon in 1994. I was reading in a library in Oahu (Hawai’i), when I was suddenly flooded by all of these questions. If Tahitians sailed towards Hawai’i when it was uninhabited, why couldn’t

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