 to books, books, books, where we discuss reading, writing, and everything in between and beyond. I'm your host, Dr. Rita Forsythe, coming to you from Maui on the Think Tech Network series, broadcasting from our studio in downtown Honolulu. The title of today's episode is Eddie Wingo, the story of the Upside Down Canoe. Joining me today is Marion Lyman-Mercero, author of an illustrated children's book about Eddie Eikau. Welcome, Marion. Thank you, aloha. Aloha. Many of us on the islands know about Eddie Eikau and the meaning behind the saying, Eddie would go. I wrote about it in my novel under the monkey pod tree, but for those who don't know this story, Marion, who was Eddie? Well, Eddie Eikau was a big wave surfer, but even before that, no, he was a big wave surfer before he was a lifeguard at Waimea Bay and the first lifeguard at Waimea Bay. And, you know, he won the Tukaharamoku at Makaha and he was a champion surfer, along with his brother, Clyde, but Eddie is what this story is about. And Eddie would go, you know, was coined by Mark Fu, who was also a big wave surfer who lost his life at Mavericks in California. And he said Eddie would go after the Eddie professional meet at Waimea was called because the surf was way too gnarly. He said, Eddie would go. So what's fascinating about your story is you were a crew member on the Hokulao when it capsized in 1978. So let's start with the history of the Hokulao. Okay, Hokulao. Hokulao, sorry. Hokulao is a double-holed canoe. Double-holed Polynesian Voyaging Canoe was built 1974. The idea came to three men who founded the Polynesian Voyaging Society. They were Herb Kani and Tommy Holmes and Ben Finney, Dr. Ben Finney. He was an anthropology professor at the University of Hawaii. Tommy was a all-around water man and also a great philanthropist. He started parents at Children Together Act during Hawaii. And Herb Kani, I think a lot of people know was a fantastic artist. So they started that with the goal, the objective to prove that the accidental drift theory of Polynesian Voyaging that Polynesians just got on a canoe and maybe a storm kicked up and they ended up in the most remote group of islands in the Pacific Ocean by accident. And they wanted to prove that the voyaging was done intentionally, that they created proper seaworthy canoes that could make these long voyages and that they could do it without the aid of instruments. Because there were no such things as chronometers and sextants and charts when they were navigating between the huge Polynesian Triangle from French Polynesia all the way to Rapa Nui, New Zealand and Hawaii. Oh my goodness. So how did you get involved with the famous vessel? How were you chosen to crew? I got to meet Herb Kani on a Labor Day sale from, we left from Maui to it's an annual thing. And we left from Maui, we came to Honolulu. It's usually a five-hour sale, but there was no wind and it was more like 17 hours. And I started talking with Herb Kani and he began to tell me all about the amazing vision that these three men had. And in fact, the canoe was in frames at Dillingham Shipyard as he was speaking to me. And the more he talked about it, the more intrigued I got. And I just knew this was a project I wanted to be involved in. And so I asked how I could help. And he said, well, you can help build the canoe. And I was like, I don't know how to do that, but I'll have a go. And the boat builders put me to work after rejecting me the first time. And what Herb said, go down there and tell them I sent you. And so I went back down and put in several hundred volunteer hours on the canoe in hopes that I would be selected to go on the 76 voyage. So I was with her from September 1974 when she was just framed until she was launched March 8th, 1975. And meanwhile, I heard people say no, for sure, Mary and you'll be on board. And then after she was launched and lots of people started coming around and we got further and further towards 1976. Actually, it was even mid-75. They were starting to say, if we take women, for sure, Mary, and I'm hearing this if get louder and louder. And it ended up that I was not selected for the 76 voyage. So I went off to the Peace Corps. In 1975, they did the voyage and they accomplished exactly what they set out to do with one of the very few non-instrumental navigators that were left in the world. That's one of the things this canoe has done is there are many, many people skilled now in non-instrumental navigation. In fact, my son is one of the teachers of that skill. In the world as a result of Hokulea's amazing first journey. So Mao Piailug was from a little island in Micronesia, Sarawal, in the island group of Yap. And he navigated her down in 1976. And my oldest brother was a relief captain on that voyage. And my other brother brought her back. Oh, wow. So my mother was sending me all these clippings and I was very cute. I was going, they didn't help build the canoe. I know, yeah, geez. On the other hand, they were also very skilled, much more skilled and experienced sailors than I was. So then how did you get on the second voyage? So then I came home from the Peace Corps in 1977 and they were talking about doing another voyage and my brother convinced me to try out and they wanted to be very careful about their selection and they pre-selected five people. The captain was my brother and there was a first mate and a doctor and I know what Thompson was going to prove his chops as a non-instrumental navigator for the first time. Having spent after his return in 1976, he was with my brother on that. He spent two years in the planetarium, basically, with Will Koselka, his mentor, and had memorized some 200 stars and constellations and felt ready to voyage. And then Norman P. and I was on board as the instrumental navigator, which is why we did not have an escort canoe because we had somebody there that would tell, actually wouldn't tell. Nobody knew except he, where we actually were, according to you, where I know I thought we were. Oh, well, that kind of leads us into my next question is if you could tell us the story of the accident. Yeah, so we left on March 16th, 1978, for Magic Island with a lot of pomp and ceremony, an obvious ceremony, Mayor Fossey and Governor Ariyoshi gave us lay and loyal garners saying, led hundreds of people in Hawaii, aloha as we left the dock at Magic Island, and say sale. And the wind was blowing about 30, 35 knots. The seas were about six to eight feet in the channel, but we went. And about six hours in, I was in the Hale, the canoe used to sail with a little Hale hut, you know, in the center of the canoe. And I was in side squeezed with eight other guys. There were 16 of us and I was the only woman. And so we weren't on watch till midnight. So we were trying to get some sleep before then. And I heard my brother's voice starting to get a little louder. And then I heard him say in command form, all hands on deck. The first thing I saw was Norman Pianaya with a 10 gallon bucket bailing as fast as he could. And I noticed the water was coming in a lot faster than he could bail it out. We were all told to put on life jackets and sit on the high side pole to try and balance her out. And within probably 10 minutes of the all hands on deck command, this canoe had picked up a big swell and the wind on that windward side. And we just, the 60 foot canoe went upside down. Wow. It just crawled up on to hold on to the top which had been the bottom of the canoe. And we made sure everybody was there. We did a head count. Somebody said, make like a pee, make sure you're hanging on to the canoe. Yeah. Somebody else said, let me go for help. My brother said, let's wait and see what morning brings. It was, as I said, about midnight. So y'all hang, y'all hung on all of those hours just hoping somebody would notice you out there because nobody knew where you were, right? Right. Our state of the art radio was underwater. Our emergency radio indicator beacon had not been properly secured. So it was gone and our Gibson girl was not working. And so we were so far from Honolulu at this point. I would say probably about 10 miles we could see the lights of Lanai and Molokai. We could see right down the slot. But so far from Honolulu that we, there was no point in shooting flares because the incoming flights had too much altitude. But we figured in the morning, we would have that early morning Hawaiian neighbor island commuters on those flights. So we were just gonna wait it out till morning. What were you feeling? What was that experience like? I was feeling very sick. I was throwing up on the guy next to me and then I figured I shouldn't play favorite. So I threw up on the guy. I didn't. But as far as fear or anything, I mean, I think you know when you're miserably seasick or if you've never been seasick, if you've got the flu, there's other than just being miserable. There's no room for fear or anything like that. So then morning came and then what happened? So morning came. I remember wanting to just sit down and all night this 10 foot surfboard had been banging against the back of our legs of those of us who were down at that end where it was tied and I just wanted to sit on it. So I did and that felt so good because here we've been standing, I've been shivering standing being the smallest member on board, shivering, standing, throwing up and sitting down felt wonderful and then lying down felt even better and then I lift up and I see all the guys looking at me and I realized that's something they all wanna do. And actually the guys wanted to explore with the board. Somebody got on the board and took rounds to sort of assess the damage and at one point somebody actually paddled away and was gone for a good long time and a big, big plane C-130 flew directly over us. We were looking actually up at the belly of this plane and we thought it might be our rescue even though we were unable to call for any rescue but snake Ahi, Abraham Ahi who was the one who did paddle off came paddling back thinking also that it was our rescue. Okay. And it wasn't, but again, that person said, let me go for help. And who other than a big wave surfer lifeguard that would be his MO to save lives. So was that Eddie? It was the same guy that, you know, that night. And so the officers got together and had a discussion and it was decided that Eddie would go. Eddie would go. So Eddie tied the board to his ankle. He had a strobe light. He had a bag of oranges and my brother said, you know, put on your life jacket. He said, no need. And they said, put on your life jacket. And he loosely strapped the life jacket around him to put it, you know, over his head because he wanted to paddle on his knees. Right. As he paddled away, we all held hands and said a prayer. And it seems like a few minutes later, five to 10 that a life jacket came floating back in the direction he had gone. Oh, you're kidding. I never knew that. Wow. Yeah. My goodness. So how long was it after that that you were finally rescued? So later in the evening, we finally had drifted into the air traffic pattern, which we had not been near all morning with the exception at C-130. And actually about three o'clock, a Navy ship had come towards us, turned broadside to us. We were, you know, using rescue mirrors and trying to motion to them. And we were looking at their stern. They were only a quarter mile away, but we are an overturned vessel in six to eight foot C. So probably not easy, but it didn't seem that there was anybody on deck. And so as evening came along, we got back in the air traffic pattern and we were, you know, very excited in the beginning because a plane would fly very near us and they'd shoot the flare and they'd shoot the flare and off it would go. And then there'd be another one coming this way and they'd shoot the flare and shoot the flare and off it would go. And we got to the point where we weren't very excited about planes flying near us anymore. And they were just about to put the flare gun away. I was holding the bucket that it went into. And it was just about past the nine o'clock, which back then in 1978 is when planes inter-island flights stopped flying. And this plane headed towards and my brother and the first mate went, what the heck? And they loaded up the flare gun again and they shot the flare. And it went just like all the rest over us and they shot the flare again and that plane banked and circled us. Oh wow, I got chicken skin. Yeah. And then it came down lower with another circle and it came down lower with another circle. Oh my gosh. And then it headed straight towards us and blinked its lights back to Alvanolulu. So it was assuring us that they had seen us and also getting our bearings for a rescue helicopter. So rescue helicopter came out within 45 minutes and I was up in the helicopter. They first dropped down a basket. I know I swam over and got it, gave it to my brother. My brother said, can you read us? There was no response. We realized it was a one-way radio. He said, can you read us? If the answer is affirmative, blink your lights and the lights went blink. And then it said, have you seen or heard from Eddie Aikau? He left the canoe at about 10 o'clock this morning on a 10-foot surfboard, the lights went blink, blink. Negative. Uh-oh. My brother reported right then that that's what had happened and the search then began for Eddie. We saw another helicopter maybe half an hour later doing his exact search pattern. We, and yeah, that search went on for two weeks. I was in a helicopter. I was one of the first in the helicopter. And the next day I was in a helicopter on a search. And yeah. And- You know, I just could listen to you all day but the time is ticking away and I want to have you read a little bit from your book, but before you do, I think I'm gonna have, so you wrote the book, a children's book, and then you wrote a play and that play, I would love to show a little clip from that play first and then have you read. So let's have our engineer play that now. Formed at the UH Kennedy Theater January and February of this year, fantastic. All right, we have four minutes for you to read from your book. You're beautifully illustrated. Eddie Wingo. Yeah, so, you know, it's always, I've told the story to so many people, usually in the longer period of time. It always ends on such a downer, you know, he paddled away and we never saw him again. So I wanted to write a more uplifting story and then, you know, several years later, adapted it to a play, but you saw the characters and they're illustrated so beautifully, you know, in this book. And so Tutu Wail is wanting to tell the story to grandson Wail, who actually asks her. And so he says, Kaleo, grandson says, Kaleo, my dear grandson, no hello, no greetings, after he says, can you tell me the story, Tutu? No greetings for your Tutu, before you ask her for something. Oh, aloha avakea Tutu Wailene, now can you tell me the story? No pehea oi, how are you when you greet your Tutu Kaleo? No please, ke olu olu oi when you ask for something. Aue no hoi Kaleo. Where is your respect? Your manners. I'm sorry, Tutu Wailene, pehea oi, ke olu olu oi? Aue, ko umo upuna Kaleo. Aue, yes, my grandchild, Tutu agreed. Do you want to invite a friend to listen to? What about that night of friend of yours, that happy spinning dolphin who always grins? So he goes over and he gets to bring Lele, who's cavorting around the catamarans in front of the Royal Hawaiian. And then while he's watching Lele go over there, while Lele was admiring Lele, a long dark shape had begun to swim around circles around him. He started to worry. Mr. Mano, sir, why are you swimming circles around me? Ask Kaleo politely. I was just wondering, how come you're still alone like that? You only want kid? You should be with your mother and father like that. I know Mr. Mano, but they gave me permission to come and find my friend Lele. And Lele comes rushing in and says, what are you doing here with Kaleo, Mr. Mano? Lele asked an accusing tone, nothing. I wasn't doing nothing. I was only wondering, how come that peaky whale, whence they all by himself in the water with no mara and fara nearby? And so, yeah, Mr. Mano speaks pigeon. And they go off and on the way they meet Father Eleo, who is a monk seal, and he's a monk who has taken a vow of silence. So he doesn't have any lines. That's great. And then Mr. Honu, Mr. Honu speaks like this. He just likes to keep his shell shiny and clean at all times because he knows he's the chief attraction of all the canoes and sailboats that go by. And finally, there's Eva. And Eva is like out of the 60s, 70s. She speaks like, wow, far out. I'm up here with a bird's eye view. And so they witness what happened. And they're with Eddie when he paddles away. And these are just amazing illustrations. This is sort of what it was like when we sailed off into literally into the sunset, although we weren't going west, we were going southeast. And there we are upside down. Oh boy. And Eddie is getting ready to paddle away. And so the story goes, but it ends different. And the way that that ending worked was I had plans for it, but the story, the characters told me the ending. So this story came through me rather than from me. Beautiful, beautiful work. And thank you for reading that. And I'm sorry to say that's all the time we have today. So I want to thank you, Marion, for being my special guest and thank our broadcast engineer, our floor manager and J. Fidel, our executive producer. A special mahalo to our underwriters and thank you for joining us. Books, books, books will be back in two weeks. Until then, read, write and create your world. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.