The Polynesian Voyaging Society has scheduled a departure ceremony tomorrow for Hokule'a, the Hawaiian voyaging canoe that will embark this week on a historic voyage to places where no Polynesian canoe is ever known to have gone.

The vessel's five-month trip has two primary goals: to escort the gift of the voyaging canoe Alingano Maisu to navigator Mau Piailug in Micronesia; and to make a visit to the islands of Japan in honor of Hawai'i's historic connection to that nation.

"A key thing for this voyage is making new friendships and opening new doors. That's what the canoe does. It voyages," said Bruce Blankenfeld, a non-instrument navigator who will serve as captain for the voyage from Hawai'i to Ponape, where Polynesian Voyaging Society president Nainoa Thompson will board and guide the vessels to Piailug's island.

Although the ceremony at Sand Island's Marine Education Training Center has been scheduled for tomorrow, anticipated high winds could delay until the weekend the actual casting off of Hokule'a's mooring lines.

The canoe's first leg will be to the Big Island, to rendezvous with Alingano Maisu, a voyaging canoe built by Na Kalai Wa'a Moku O Hawai'i. The 57-foot double-hulled canoe is a gift from the Hawaiian voyaging community to Piailug, who 30 years ago began teaching traditional non-instrument navigation to Hawai'i voyagers when they could find no Polynesian navigators to share their knowledge. Thompson was his first student.

The canoes will island-hop through Micronesia to Piailug's home island of Satawal, which they expect to reach in late February. The first leg, from Hawai'i to the Marshall Islands, will take most of January. The Aloha Medical Mission will send teams of doctors to provide medical care at islands where the canoes visit. That care will include direct treatment, as well as training and medical supplies.

Alingano Maisu will remain in Micronesia, while the 63-foot Hokule'a will sail on to Japan, visiting islands and ports from which came most Japanese immigrants to Hawai'i.

The islands of Micronesia are generally culturally distinct from those of Polynesia, but the non-instrument navigational systems are believed to have been somewhat similar.

While there are no historical references to Polynesian contact with Japan, it is clear that early Polynesians did venture into the region of Micronesia. The islands of Kapingamarangi and Nukuoro in Micronesia are both inhabited by Polynesians and are considered outlying islands of the Polynesian triangle — a vast region of the Pacific whose extreme points are in Hawai'i to the north, Aotearoa or New Zealand to the southwest and Rapa Nui or Easter Island to the southeast.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.