Hōkūlea from Hawaii to Tahiti on its maiden voyage in 1976. Mau trained and mentored Native Hawaiian navigator Nainoa Thompson, who would later become a master navigator. David Henry Lewis, a scholar of Polynesian navigation, documented Mau's work. Mau's first-hand knowledge of traditional navigation had been accumulated in Northern Hemisphere study and sailings, but the voyage to Tahiti required Mau to familiarise himself with the geography and night sky of the Southern Hemisphere. Of the preparation, Finney writes, To prepare Mau Piailug for the voyage, David Lewis briefed him on the geography of the islands in this part of the Pacific and the winds and currents that could be expected along the way, all information that an early Polynesian navigator acquainted with this route would have carried in his head. In addition, to alert Mau of how the elevation of stars above the northern and southern horizons would change as the canoe sailed farther and farther south, we held training sessions in Honolulu's Bishop Museum planetarium to graphically show how, for example, as one sailed toward Tahiti[,] Polaris sank lower and lower on the northern horizon until it disappeared at the equator while the Southern Cross curved higher and higher in the sky. During his first few days of the voyage, Mau received further coaching on the pattern of winds and currents from Rodo Williams, a veteran Tahitian seaman on the crew who the year before had sailed a yacht from Tahiti to Hawaii and could therefore provide Mau with a firsthand account of what he could expect to encounter. Their collaboration proved successful when, on the 31st day at sea on the 1976 voyage, Mau stated soon they would see land, and the next day, Tahiti. A few hours later, they spotted land-based white terns (Gygis alba) followed by a diminution of the trade-wind swell. That night, they spotted Mataiva. After a brief stopover, with little more than another day's sailing they made landfall at Tahiti where they were welcomed by 17,000 people, half the population of Tahiti. Nainoa's ambition was to sail Hōkūlea to Tahiti as navigator by using recreated traditional techniques. He spent years training on his own and with Mau. Mau's training and mentoring helped Nainoa achieve that goal in the 1980 Tahiti voyage. It marked the first time in over 500 years that a Native Hawaiian had mastered the stars, the seas, the birds, and