Canoe returns after traditional trip round world

HONOLULU, Hawaii - No modern navigation instrumentation guided a Polynesian voyaging canoe as it followed the horizon during a three-year journey around the globe.

About a dozen crew members for each leg of the voyage relied only on their understanding of nature's cues ocean swells, stars, wind, birds and their own naau, or instincts, to sail across about 74,000 kilometers to 19 countries, spreading a message of malama honua: Caring for the Earth.

On Saturday, thousands welcomed the double-hulled canoe Hokulea home to Hawaii when it entered a channel off the island of Oahu and tied up to a floating dock with iconic Diamond Head in the distance.