{"id":366969,"date":"2022-04-25T06:01:47","date_gmt":"2022-04-24T20:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=366969"},"modified":"2022-04-25T06:01:47","modified_gmt":"2022-04-24T20:01:47","slug":"500-sails-canoes-make-historic-voyage-around-saipan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/500-sails-canoes-make-historic-voyage-around-saipan\/","title":{"rendered":"500 Sails\u2019 canoes make historic voyage around Saipan"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Richard Seman canoe and its crew, led by grand master navigator Sesario Sewralur, takes\u00a0oxff from the Smiling Cove Marina yesterday morning in a historic maritime voyage that will see them circling the entire island of Saipan. (LEIGH GASES)
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Four canoes took off yesterday morning from the Smiling Cove Marina for a historic maritime event that will see the vessels circumnavigating the island of Saipan, starting with the launch yesterday, landing at Laulau and spending the night, then finishing the journey by heading to Guma Sakman in Susupe sometime today, Monday.<\/p>\n

About 30 spectators witnessed the beginning of this event, called \u201cCircumnavigation of Saipan in Traditional Chamorro Canoes via Unai Bapot,\u201d which event organizer 500 Sails said has never been seen before in hundreds of years. The voyage of the four canoes are being done under the direction of four Carolinian master navigators and selected crew.<\/p>\n

According to the 500 Sails, \u201cthis voyage is intended to commemorate the legacy of traditional navigation and the ancestral village of Unai Bapot<\/i>, which dates back approximately 3,500 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unai Bapot<\/i> is the name of the ancient Chamorro ancestral village settlement in Laulau, Saipan. This settlement is believed to be the oldest of early settlements by the ancient Chamorros in the Northern Marianas.<\/p>\n

Along with \u201ccommemorating a sacred site of our ancestors, this open ocean journey gives the crew members an opportunity to build upon their experiences in the open ocean and apply their skill sets and knowledge under the tutelage of the well-seasoned master navigators,\u201d said 500 Sails in an earlier news release.<\/p>\n

The four Chamorro canoes launched in this voyage are named Neni, Auntie Oba, Richard Seman, <\/i>and Anaguan<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Grand master navigator Sesario Sewralur, son of Mau Piailug, is the navigator of the Richard Seman<\/i>. The Aunty Oba<\/i> is under the direction of Sewralur\u2019s brother, master navigator Antonio Piailug. The Anaguan<\/i> is under the direction of their nephew, master navigator Cecilio Raiukiulipiy, and the Neni<\/i> is under the direction of Mariano Bonito.<\/p>\n

Sewralur described the voyage as \u201cvery important for our new generation to understand our life and our history, because this is how we survived in the old days. \u2026This is what brings us from different places to another place. If typhoons destroy our food, then we need to go to different places to bring food to our people and that\u2019s the navigator\u2019s role. \u2026So I hope that this will be a very historic voyage for our new generation to understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emma Perez, co-founder of 500 Sails, said the launching of the canoes was a beautiful sight to behold. \u201cIt touches me deeply. It may have been centuries or more since this has happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

One spectator, Tano Taitano, who experienced sailing one of the canoes the day before, said that witnessing the event \u201cis exvidence that our ancestors were great sea[farers]. \u2026Today we have women out there with the men\u2026and it\u2019s great just to be in touch with our past. These [navigators] are the best\u2014some of the best in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perez encourages the community to join the activities that 500 Sails has to offer. \u201cOur programs are all free. We really encourage people. We started out with swimming, and to be a voyager, you need to be able to swim. So please join us for any swimming class\u2026and when you\u2019re ready, come on out. It\u2019s here for the whole community.\u201d<\/p>\n

500 Sails is a non-profit organization whose mission is to revive, promote, and preserve the maritime cultural traditions of the Mariana Islands. For more information on programs, call 670-323-7245(SAIL), email info@500sails.org, or follow 500 Sails on Facebook and Instagram<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Four canoes took off yesterday morning from the Smiling Cove Marina for a historic maritime…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":366970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1498,13614],"class_list":["post-366969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-richard-seman","tag-unai-bapot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}