Maisu’s crew thanks warm Saipan welcome

Alingano Maisu crewmembers, along with some CNMI delegates, wave to the crowd after leaving Saipan in this file photo taken last May 19 to attend the 12th Festival of the Pacific Arts in Guam. (Jon Perez)

Traditional master navigator Sesario Sewralur and the entire crew of the Alingano Maisu left Saipan last Monday filled with memories of the warm hospitality they received on the island and in Guam.

Sewralur and his crew, in a letter sent through email, thanked all the people of Saipan who came out to welcome them and support them the in their more than two week stay after their journey from Palau and the few days they spent after the FestPac.

“[We were] excited when we arrived on Saipan in the early morning of May 7. After 54 days of voyaging we were looking forward to hot showers, fried chicken, ice water, and vegetables. But we had no idea what kind of welcome awaited us,” said Sewralur.

He said that they felt the warmth and caring of almost everyone they meet on the island. “Over the past few weeks, friends, relatives, and people we never met before offered us food and places to shower and sleep.”

Sewralur, who learned the art of traditional navigation from his father Pius Mau Piailug, added that their stay on Saipan was like an everyday celebration.

“When we wake up, you were there making soup and eating breakfast with us. You came down to the Carolinian Affairs Office and to the Utt to ask questions and play music late into the night. You showed us around your island and reminded us of our shared history.”

They even felt the people of the CNMI were one with them in mourning the death of Murais Sebangol. The Palauan traditional navigation student died of asphyxia due to drowning in Guam in the early morning of May 22, a few minutes before the traditional welcoming of seafarers ceremony in Agana Bay. “And when we lost one of our own, you mourned with us.”

Sewralur said they left Saipan, their second home. “As voyagers, when we set sail we left our home. This trip has taught us that as we voyage we also arrive to one another.”

“Your enthusiasm and generosity helps remind us why we voyage and how important traditional navigation is to Micronesia. Saipan will always be a home for us,” Sewralur added.

As a gesture of goodwill, the Maisu’s crew gave a traditional voyaging canoe—the Makali’i—to the community before they left.

The Maisu is a double-hulled voyaging canoe that traveled for 54 days from Koror in Palau to Saipan, including several stops in six islands scattered in Yap State of the Federated States of Micronesia to pick up some supplies.

Sewralur and his crew made the close to two-month journey—with stops in Ngulu Atoll, Woleai, Ifaluk, Elato, Lamotrek, and Satawal—to attend the 12th Festival of the Pacific Arts held from May 22 to June 4 in Guam.

Aside from the late Sebangol, 7-year-old Dylan—Sewralur’s son—Rodney Kazuma of Palau, Satawal’s Miano Sowraenpiy and Albno Esoailug, Norman Tawelimai of Ifalik, American Aylie Baker, and Japanese Kazuyo Hayashi and Osamu Kasuge were part of the crew.