Aloha everyone, hope you are enjoying the new year!

2012 will certainly be an exciting year for us as we are hoping to conquer quite a few challenges.  First, as you know is the For the Love of Music project, which if you haven’t read about, check out this link.  It will be very cool.  Speaking of the music project, we have been blessed with a couple of donations that really blew my socks off.  We had two people donate pianos to the project!  Nice pianos too!  I also just got an email from a supporter of the project who wants to donate a trumpet and a flute!  How cool is that?!  Maybe next my wife will find one of those extra ukuleles we have sitting in the office closet and feel compelled to…..  well, we’ll see about that.

Musician’s Workshop Westmont is doing really well too!  The store looks great and they’ve been getting a lot of new clients for lessons.  I’m really happy for Michael Tahlier and his crew down there doing some really cool things and being the outlet for the music project.  Way to go Michael!  Continued success in 2012!  And if anyone needs musical instruction or instruments please check out his website here.

I know usually around Thanksgiving we announce that new calendars are available to order for the coming year.  Unfortunately, this year with all my firefighter training I just didn’t have the time to put these together.  But better late than never, right?  They’re here.  The new 2012 calendars are here and ready to go.  I dropped the price $5 from last year to $15 a piece for these guys.  They are very cool and as always if you purchase a calendar, all proceeds go to support the projects we’re working on.  I know its a little late, but order your calendars today!  Click here to order 2012 calendars.

We’ll be working on a few more projects this year, plus we’re working on a giveaway promotion too, so stay tuned.  Hope you have a great 2012, and as always, thank you so much for all your support!  With your help, this will be the best year yet!

Aloha nui,

Michael

We are really excited to announce our newest project, entitled: “For the Love of Music.”  This project was an idea that came from Chris Pohlman, a founding member of The Earth Trot Project and an inspirational voice in many of the projects we’ve worked on thus far.

This newest project combines our love for music and our desire to give underprivileged children an opportunity to better their future by giving the gift of music.  We are collecting musical instruments of all sorts, guitars, ukuleles, pianos, violins, drums, etc.  They don’t have to be perfect condition, but if they are usable or fixable, we’re taking them in.  Then we’re donating them to The Musician’s Workshop in Westmont, Illinois.  The staff at The Musician’s Workshop are then helping us to provide music lessons to kids in the surrounding Chicagoland area.

According to a recent study, in Chicago over 31% of children live below the poverty line.  This gives them very little chance of being able to pursue music on any level.  What we are hoping is that by providing an opportunity to learn and play instruments we can not only help give the joys of music, but maybe we can help keep kids off the streets and away from drugs and other vices.  Who knows, maybe the next Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy or Paul McCartney is waiting for his or her chance to show what they can do.

Again, this project is just in its incipient stage, but we’re working on it.  If you’re interested in helping or if you have a musical instrument that you’d like to donate, please let us know!  And if you don’t have an instrument but would still like to help out, consider making a donation.  All donations of instruments, monetary or otherwise are 100% tax deductible as The Earth Trot Project is a 501 (c)3 non-profit organization.

More info on this project coming soon!

Here’s the final video from our journey from Kapalua to Kalaupapa.  The journey crossed over the Pailolo Channel and along the North shore of Moloka’i.  We had a beautiful day with a great window for making our voyage.  The skies were clear, the ocean was relatively calm and the crossing was fairly easy.  However, we did have a slight problem just before rounding the peninsula…

We got into an area where winds where we were heading West, winds were blowing from the North and waves were coming in from the East and North West and that washing machine type of water played havoc to our boat during one of our water changes.  Unfortunately, we flipped the canoe over and the hull filled with water faster than we could bail it out.  Not all was lost, though.  After about 20 minutes trying our best to get the water out of the canoe, we had to settle for towing the boat around the peninsula and into calmer waters.  When we got it there, we were able to bail out the water and take it onshore.

After a traditional Hawaiian welcoming ceremony, we settled in to a night of volleyball with the residents followed by the Gavagan brothers playing music at the local bar.  The next morning Claire, Kalawai’a and Kim spent the day with us showing us around the settlement, talking story and enjoying the beautiful area that is Kalaupapa.  Unfortunately, our planes came in to take us away that evening, but we certainly are planning a return!  Hopefully in the spring we can go back and help build a hale (traditional wooden building) for the canoe over there…  Stay tuned…

This video starts at the beginning, from when the Kamali’i was first donated to The Earth Trot Project.  These clips are from the restoration process and from the first half of our journey which took place on October 23, 2010.  We left Kihei Canoe Club and paddled Kamali’i all the way to Kapalua about 32 miles from here.  The voyage was pretty calm and easy, especially with the great paddlers we had aboard.  I’ll have another video of the culmination of this trip, the paddle around Moloka’i and down to Kalaupapa which should be really cool, but for now, enjoy Part I….

The music in this video is by an amazing musician who lives on Moloka’i and heard about our project.  He’s an avid paddler and as you’ll soon be able to tell, an awesome musician.  His name is Lono and you can check out more of his work at www.lonomusic.com.

It is with great sadness that I need to report the passing of one of the most dynamic individuals of the Kalaupapa Canoe Project.  This past weekend Shaun Gavagan passed away from a heart attack.

Shaun’s brother, Kevin, and I worked hard to restore Kamali’i over the last three months.  A few days before our journey, Kevin called me up and asks if there would be room on the boat for his brother.  ”Of course!” I said, feeling like I had known Shaun for years already because of the stories Kevin would tell.  ”He’s just like me,” he once said, “except the exact opposite.  He’s outgoing and fun to be around, and I have the personality of that stone.”

When I met him, it was just as Kevin said, I felt like I had known him my whole life.  He was engaging humorous and fun to be around. And when they were together, the Gavagan brothers were as close as any siblings I’ve ever met.  Together they played music that sang from their souls.  They complimented each other perfectly, Shaun on ukulele and Kevin on guitar.

Throughout our paddle over to Kalaupapa and our time down in the settlement, Shaun shared his mana’o (thoughts) about Hawaiian culture, spirituality and the peninsula of Kalaupapa.  He and Kevin even performed at the local bar until well after closing time and followed that up by playing music at church the next morning.

I was sad to say goodbye to Shaun when we got back to Maui, and remember thinking, “Man, I can’t wait to see that guy again, hang out and kanikapila (play music).”  Shaun had flown out here from California to be a part of this project with us and honestly, the project just wouldn’t have been half of what it was without him.  When the news came of Shaun’s passing a few days back I was so taken aback.  I had never met anyone whom I knew so little that I felt so impacted by their loss.  Breaking the news to the rest of the crew, the reactions were the same.

I spent the last few days going over photos and video from the trip and trying to put together a little compilation of Shaun from our time together.  I hope you enjoy this video and that it gives you just a small window into the life of an absolutely amazing person.  Rest in peace, my friend. We will all miss you!

-Michael

The journey was long and treacherous in parts. At times we almost didn’t make it, but alas!  We persevered! It was an amazing journey with a slew of amazing stories, but no time for that now.  I know it took me a long time to get this up here for you to check out, and I promise I’ve got a whole lot more to update you on soon, so stay tuned!  But for now, here’s a few photos from the journey.  I’ve got a bunch of video too and soon we’ll have that up here for  you to check out, but for now, enjoy these pictures!

On our way to Kalaupapa!

Kalaupapa Bound!

Here we are on our way!

That’s right, our project is a GO!  We are going to launch tomorrow morning from Flemings Beach in Kapalua around 5:30am and with any luck arrive in Kalaupapa around 1:00p or so.  A huge mahalo to everyone who has helped the project make it this far and for the crew that will be making the journey with us to Moloka’i.  We have a seventeen man crew and a 45′ long escort boat taking us to the peninsula.  From there, about half of us will be staying, the other half will be traveling back with the escort boat.  Those of us who stay will be flown out on little three seater airplanes back to Maui on Sunday afternoon (can’t wait to see these little planes)!

Assuming all goes according to plan, I should have an update for you by Monday… Keep us in your thoughts and prayers.  Waves are supposed to be at 7′ or so and the winds at 15 mph.  Alright, we’re out… see you all next week!

Well, after over two months worth of work, the canoe is all put together and took its maiden voyage from Kihei Canoe Club to Kapalua this past weekend. As the beautiful full harvest moon shone high in the night sky a crew of 12 paddlers set out amid the moonlight on a voyage that would take us close to 30 miles by the end of the day.

After an hour and a half, our paddlers made it to the first relay point, where a second crew was waiting to continue the journey. At Papalaua Beach the second crew began their journey continuing on to the next relay point about 7 miles away just North of Launiuopoko Beach.  From there, the crews switched out again, and went further North to Hanakao’o Beach.  From Hanakao’o, the journey continued to S-Turns (Pohaku Park) and finally on to D.T. Flemings were the boat landed safely.

For the remainder of this week, the canoe will remain at Flemings, and on Saturday morning at about 4:30am, if we get our window to go, we will.  Right now, current forecasts have the wind coming out of the East at 15 miles per hour with gusts up to 25 miles per hour.  The waves are coming out of the East by North East at 8 second intervals at 7′ heights.  If this pattern continues and this is what we get, this should be a green light for us to paddle out.

The ocean no doubt will be big, but we think the canoe and the crew will be able to handle these conditions.  Keep your fingers crossed, say your prayers, and in one week, we should have some amazing pictures and video from the channel crossing, provided that we make it back to tell the tale….

All dressed up and ready for her first dance!

Destination: Kalaupapa!

Last minute rigging updates…

Here’s the initial crew for our first leg, Kihei to Kapalua!

Heading out past Ma’alaea as the sun breaks over Haleakala

It’s a little odd, the feeling when you see yourself on the front page of the newspaper for the first time, but it felt good to have the recognition for the project.  Hopefully this will be the first of many times we get publicity like this for our organization.  Read the whole article here.

Yesterday evening the painting of Kamali’i came to an end and the two months of hard work finally started showing its rewards.  Lloyd, Kevin and myself were there to witness the magic that came from applying a gallon of “Big Bad Green” onto the hull of Kamali’i. It took us about two hours to apply three coats of paint before the sun set.  The color came out a bit brighter than we anticipated, but with the white trim all around on the top of the canoe, it looks great.  We’re really excited now to try to get this thing back together, finish the ama (float), paint that and rig this boat back up.  And of course, to get it back in the water!

Today as Uncle Kimokeo, Kevin Gavagan and myself were down at the canoe, we admired the color in natural light.  It really looks sharp and out on the water its going to be beautiful.  As we were admiring Kamali’i, Kevin pulled out his guitar along with a sheet of printer paper and started playing a beautiful Hawaiian mele he wrote for the canoe and its journey over to Kalaupapa.  Having my guitar in my truck, I grabbed it and started playing along and Uncle Kimokeo too, sat with us and started singing the lyrics Kevin had written.

This was truly a magical and special moment in my life and one I wish I could have shared with all of you, but it will remain special and privy to only the handful of us who were there.  Maybe someday soon you’ll be able to hear the song too… (yes, that is foreshadowing… don’t touch that dial….)

Check out Lloyd spraying the canoe.  Looks pretty good so far!

Still working on the “Big Bad Green”

Ooooh, baby!