The Albatross from the Ocean's Heart Meets the Ship Destiny's Dreams

The circle of life was sweet.

Each pink glow of morning led to a day of seafaring, gathering food on the islands, and meeting by the firesides for meals, tales, songs, and dances.

The little girl named Lani and the boy called Kai played with the other children in the tropical forest, chasing each other through the trees, and swimming in the sea.

Overhead the twelve foot wingspan of an albatross often soared.

The mythic tales about Lani and Kai were discovered over a hundred years later.

A saltwater stained journal from the clipper ship called Destiny’s Dreams was found in a sailor’s sea chest in the attic of the Mystical Lighthouse.

Several wood carvings were nearby. They all had spirals, lines like sun rays. One had the word “Alaula” carved on it. 

Ana, the Storyteller of the Blue Lantern, had written the story down.

The pale brown ink of her writing continued the tale.

Years glided by like ocean birds floating on the warm breezes, and the two children became teenagers.

Lani and Kai padded through the forest and climbed a ridge to the thatched hut where Kumu na’auao lived.

A tiny old man, with a wrinkled face sat outside, wearing clothing made of the soft bark from island trees. Over his hut an albatross soared in circles.

“So you have decided.” His big eyes blinked and his large ears moved when he spoke.

“Our future is beyond the sunrise.” Kai’s voice started higher pitched like a boy’s, and he lowered it to deeper tones.

“We want to search for new islands.” Lani’s voice was eager.

She continued. “We are ready. The island is becoming smaller every day. The oceans beyond the dawn’s rise are calling us. We cannot stay here.”

The little old man spoke softly.“You know the ways of the star compass, the stick and shell maps, the patterns of the wave tips, the shore birds, the albatross, the whales and migration patterns.”

“Here is the stick and shell map of my grandfather’s grandfather. The sticks point you in the direction. Their length shows the distance. The shells show islands or land. It is aligned with the stars and constellations.”

Lani spoke. “We will treasure this and honor it.” She knew a safe place on their vessel where she would put it.

Lani and Kai were almost finished building their vessel.

Several days later, Lani gestured to Kai.

“I am not sure I can do this.”

Kai was shocked. “What is wrong? Why have you changed your mind?”

For several days they avoided each other.

 Then Lani came to Kai. She brought the stick and shells map. No words were necessary. They were going to make the voyage.

Kumu na’auao, the wise little mentor, performed a ceremony to join Lani and Kai in marriage for all of eternity.

“For you, Lani, with a love beyond all the seas and skies of this world.”

Kai put the necklace he made for Lani around her neck. It hung from a cord made woven bark, and the wood carving showed the spiral of time and rays of the sun.

“And for you, Kai, with a love beyond all the stars and constellations above.” Lani put the time spirals and sun rays bracelet she made on Kai’s wrist. 

“ You know we will always love you and miss you.” Lani’s mother embraced her daughter.

“Son, may the forces of the sea, sky, the animals, and the islands be with you.”

 They loaded their vessel with taro, breadfruit, dried fish, gourds full of water, and green coconuts holding delicious coconut water.

The 40 foot vessel was made of long canoe pontoons with a woven bamboo raft suspended between them, two v-shaped narrow sails from masts, and a small hut on the raft part. 

The two sails of the vessel bore the designs made with dyes of the spirals of time and the sun’s rays, like the ones on Lani’s necklace and Kai’s bracelet.

Carvings on the stern of the vessel carried the symbols too.

The vessels name “Alaula,” meaning light of dawn, was on the stern.

 Everyone was surprised when the wise hermit from his hilltop hut, Kumu na’auao, came out of the forest and onto the beach.

“The first light of day has called me. I am coming also.”

His eyes became wider, and his big ears wiggled when he spoke to them.

“He is the master trainer of the sea compass, the stick and shell charts, the readings from the wave tips, and he who knows the ways of the sea birds.” Lani’s mother spoke to Lani’s father.

“I am so relieved.” Her father nodded to his wife.

An albatross stretched wings almost twelve feet wide in the sky, soaring above the Kumu. He looked up, fastening his eyes on it. 

"That is my albatross, Hokulele, the star flyer, who knows the ocean's heart. She comes with me."

A shadow grew over the group when the bird swooped down and flew just over their heads.

“Hokulele will guide us from above.” Kumu spoke to them, then he murmured something else.

The twenty pound bird with the twelve foot wingspread circled over Kumu’s head. He grabbed some dried fish and threw it. Her eight inch long beak snatched it out of the air and it disappeared.

“On a journey of thousands of miles, she rides the air currents, without flapping her wings. We, too, will ride currents on the ocean. She knows things we can only guess.”

Lani and Kai watched Hokulele, the albatross, with mouths open and eyes wide. Then they stared at Kumu, wondering.

The villagers sang a chant of good-by, and helped them push their vessel, the Alaula, off the sandbar. A light breeze filled the sails, and they were on their way to the place beyond the sunrise.

The days and nights, the sunrises and sunsets, and the movements of the stars in the constellations of the southern hemisphere gave a rhythm to their life on their vessel, Alaula.

Kumu explained how the very tips of the waves were changed from places where the waves met islands or land, even hundreds of miles away.

“Here are some new stars I have not shown you yet. And there you can also see bright spots of other objects in the night sky. Those might even be other worlds with islands and seas like this world.”

“Breathe deep, soften your vision until it blurs, let the intuition within show the connections between everything – sky, sea, birds, waves, air, stars. What does it all mean? Deep inside you know this. Let it rise to the surface, as if it is coming from the bottom of the sea.”

The days passed with Kumu’s teachings and the weather of the season was pleasant.

Hokulele, Kumu’s albatross, swept by overhead and soared down to the vessel sometimes when Kumu offered dried fish.

They felt safe knowing they were under Hokulele’s eyes, as if they were protected. When she flew down over their heads, her intelligent eyes scanned theirs.

They knew they were not alone. Beneath the waves, forty to sixty foot beings glided and sometimes surfaced.

On a hot, windless day Lani slipped into the water next to their vessel.

The ocean felt cool in the tropical heat of the equator, and Lani floated in the velvety water, holding on to the canoe floats holding up their bamboo raft. 

"Come on in. It feels so good." She called to the group and Kai slipped into the water next to her.

"Today is even hotter than usual. We must stay out of the sun, cool off, and conserve our energy, and keep rationing the water. Or we will not survive." His voice was low.

"I know we must save enough green coconuts with coconut water for emergencies." The girl's voice was quiet.

"I do not want to upset the others, but our fresh water could run out if we don't come to an island with streams."

The others sat in the mid-day shade, huddled under the v-shaped, narrow, triangular sail.  

 "Aaaaaa. OoooooOOO." Humpback whales sent their songs and calls through the water under the waves.

One humpback whale glided nearby and decided to take a peek above the waves. 

She could see a dark shadow on the surface above her.

"What was it?" Curiousity called and she got ready to take a look.

She gathered speed underwater, her tail fin flukes whipping back and forth, and she raced upward for her spyhop.

"Whooosh." Her giant snout broke the surface.

"Splash." The forty foot long body rose in the air. Her eyes glanced around the smooth, almost windless seas at the equator's doldrums.

An odd thing drifted on the surface. Living beings drifted in the water next to it.

"Boom." The giant creature fell back against the waves.

"Crash." The huge body dented the water and sank, sending water spouting high into the air.

 The female whale was migrating from Antarctica to the warm waters of the equator where her pod met up with other whales for finding mates.

The whales who were pregnant gave birth there, where the warm water was kind to their newborn calves.

"Aaaaaa.  Ooooooo." She sang a whale song to the others about what she saw on the ocean surface.

Another whale decided to take a look too. Then more whales wanted a peek too.

The ocean exploded.

Over a dozen gigantic bodies shot into the air, their snouts and bodies bursting through the ocean surface.

"Crash. Boom. Splash."

Screams broke the silence on the quiet seas. The ocean surged over the deck. People grasped the bamboo structure. One side of the vessel was submerged.

"Look out."

"Hold on."

"Are you alright?"

"Is everyone still here?"

In the ocean Lani and Kai were lifted and then slammed into the sea.

“Lani. Lani.” Kai reached but only grabbed water.

“Kai.” She called to him. Her voice was cut off by water closing over her head.

With his long legs kicking, Kai grasped Lani’s arm, and clung to the canoe part of their sailing raft.

Above them, the double canoes holding up the raft plunged, and the limp sails of the windless day snapped and shook.

The seas churned and bubbled.

The twelve foot wide wings of Hokulele swooped over the spyhopping whales.

Then the water returned to its smooth, glassy surface.

They were gone.

Kai spoke to Lani. "Humpback whales migrating. I heard them when I was underwater. It sounds like someone groaning. They are singing to each other about what they saw on the spyhops. they do not want to hurt us."

The young woman nodded. “The whales are our friends, guardians, and protectors. They did not realize their spyhops would almost upset the boat.”

There was someone else approaching in the distance in addition to the whales. The sails of the clipper ship Destiny’s Dreams, and the two other boats in her fleet, slowly moved in the light wind, coming over the horizon closer to the vessel called Alaula bobbing under the flight of the albatross Hokulele.

Isabella's eyes spotted a dark speck where the blue of the equator's ocean became sky. She called to her husband, the vessel's First Mate, Adelberto, pointing. 

The cloud white, square sails of the Destiny's Dreams were filled with a light breeze on the three masts of the fast clipper ship's deck where Isabella stood.

Ana, the ship's storyteller, squinted into the distance, and a new tale began to bubble up from the depths of her mind.

"It's a boat." Captain Alfonse Belanger of the Destiny's Dreams peered through his telescope with one eye and closed the other.

The red, blue, and yellow parrot on his shoulder hopped and bobbed his head.

"Boat. Hahaha." Foresta the Laughing Parrot's voice carried over the quiet ocean that morning.

Rio, the captain's rescued monkey, watched from a perch high in the rigging, his eyes widening under the protruding eyebrow shelf, and his lips drawing back into his grin. 

"Ooooo. Ooooo. Chirp. Squeak." His voice was high pitched. 

Something was happening. Rio scrambled down the rope ladder from the top sails and wrapped his long toes and fingers around the railing on the deck. 

The racing schooner called the Otter and the fishing boat called by the crew the Soggy Sardine zig zagged through light gusts of wind near the Destiny's Dreams. 

On the Sardine, Captain Steelwave was known to his crew as Squidbeard. The red curls of his beard hung to his waist and the strands reached out like tentacles on a squid or an octopus.

The fleet of three vessels and the speck floating on the horizon drew closer together.  

"We have not seen land for so long. What could that be?" Isabella voiced the question they were all wondering.

“Look. Whales. Next to the boat.” Adelberto was high up in the rigging, looking down at the water.

“AAaaaa. Ooooo.” One of the whales sang to the others underwater.

She was saying, “There is another big dark shadow on the surface of the sea out here. What could it be?”

A group of the whales began to whip their tails in the water to gather speed for a leap above the surface to make a spyhop and look around.

Whales began rising toward the sky from the sea, getting a glance at the ship.

“Crash.” The tail of fifty foot long whale hit the rudder of the Destiny’s Dreams, breaking it off the ship.

The twelve foot wings of Hokulele swept over the Destiny's Dreams and once again the whales quieted and the water became like glass.

“Captain.” The wheel used for steering spun around, unconnected to the rudder. The mate at the ship’s wheel called to Captain Alfonse Belanger.

“All hands on deck.” Aldeberto hollered from high on the mast.

Sailors came running from below deck and places in the shade.

The sleek hull began to rock with the waves and drift sideways.

“There is no way to steer the ship.”

“Something happened to the rudder.”

Then a group of whales rushed to the ocean’s surface and leaped into the air, flashing their eyes around to see the huge object on their ocean.

In the distance, Kai and Lani’s vessel approached, and the two islanders looked at the fleet of three vessels.

“Something is wrong. The big ship is drifting all over.”

Kumu waved at the albatross Hokulele and pointed to the clipper ship. The wings of the bird flew to the Destiny’s Dreams and circled, then returned. An unspoken message passed between Hokulele and the master sailor Kumu.

“They need help. I think their rudder is gone.” Kai and Lani used the tiller to steer their double canoe and raft craft toward the clipper ship.

“Hellooo.” Captain Alfonse was on the deck calling to them. They spoke different languages but they all understood what happened.

When the vessel Alaula got close, Kai and Lani slipped into the water and swam to the Destiny’s Dreams. They dived under water to look at the stern of the ship. The water was a home to them, even when they were surrounded by thousands of miles of ocean.

“There is no rudder. It is broken off. The whale must have knocked into it.” Lani spoke to Kai when they came up to the surface for air.

“Come on up.” Isabella on the clipper ship gestured to them.

With hand movements they all communicated. Alfonse and Adelberto got axes and cut wood from benches for sitting to make a new rudder.

He knew none of the sailors were as skillful at swimming as the two young people who seemed so at home in the water.

Adelberto got tools and lines for Kai and Lani so they could attach a new rudder. After hours of diving below the surface, and sometimes climbing on the ship again, the work was done. Isabella kept bringing them food every time they came back onto the ship.

Kumu the wise mentor watched from nearby on the Alaula, and Hokulele soared over them with sharp eyes.

Finally the new rudder was working and the Destiny’s Dreams was under control again.

The sun hovered near the horizon, then slipped away quickly, leaving an orange afterglow, and then a blue twilight fell.

Lani, Kai, and Kumu tied the vessel Alaula to the Destiny’s Dreams and accepted Captain Alfonse’s invitation to spend the night.

Isabella, Adelberto, and the people on the Destiny’s Dreams prepared a celebration feast for their rescuers.

Ana, the Storyteller of the Blue Lantern, entertained everyone by acting out the stories since their guests spoke a different language. Then the visitors from the vessel Alaula acted out their stories of life on the islands and of their voyage over thousands of miles of ocean.

Overhead, the albatross Hokulele, the star flyer, soared on the currents of night winds, a silhouette against the light of the stars and the moon. 

The next day, the Alaula continued onward to the world beyond the sunrise, and the Destiny’s Dreams and the two vessels of her fleet sailed on to the world beyond the sunset.

The circles of life were sweet on each of the ocean vessels.

Years later, Lani, Kai, Kumu, and their friends returned to their island home as passengers on the Destiny's Dreams. Hokulele the albotross flew overhead with them.

They shared their new seafaring wisdom and the tales of the albatross Hokulele whose presence calmed the whales and the ocean.

Their stories were repeated and they grew into myths.

Villagers on the archipelago of islands often said they had seen the albatross, Hokulele, circling above them when they told the stories.

"She brings good fortune to sailors."

"She knows the ocean's heart."

"Hokulele the star flyer calms the giants of the sea."