CA - Sakman Chamorro Outrigger - San Diego

Hafa Adai, TaoTao Ta’TAsi.  Greetings fellow Seafarers.

I write to share with you some seafaring news from San Diego.

I am Mario Reyes Borja, a Chamorro from the Mariana Islands. I am the lead on the Sakman Chamorro Project. This is a project to build the Marianas Sakman, aka "flying proa”. We started with a redwood tree in March of 2010 and a copy of the Anson drawing (circa 1742). A year later we completed construction of our 47-ft single outrigger sailing canoe in 2011. It is 3 ft wide at the beam, 8 ft tall at the bows, weighs 5600 lbs, sits in 18 inches of H2O, 3.5 ft free board, and equipped with a 454 sq-ft sail. We are now sailing in the San Diego area as we train for a long journey back to our islands, 13.5 deg North, 144.8 deg East (GUAM). Yes, we have already mustered 15 knots in the bay, with 20 knots PLUS our target. Our journey is tentative scheduled for Jan 2016. In the meantime we are here in San Diego.

We will be back in San Diego Bay for the launching of the San Salvador in 19 April 2015. We will be escorting this replica of the Spanish flagship that Juan Rodrigues Cabrillo sailed in to San Diego Bay on back in 1542. This is indeed a momentous event in that almost 500 years ago, back on the island of Guam, Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 aboard his Spanish flagship, the Trinidad, sailed into Umatac Bay and was escorted by hundreds of canoes built by our Chamorro people, the sakman flying proa included. Now in 2015, 484 years later, a Chamorro vessel will again be escorting a Spanish vessel. This indeed will be testimony of our survival. This is indeed a huge event for the San Diego Maritime Museum as it celebrates its project completion. Please save the date.

Our Sakman will be on display the San Marcos University campus on 28 March for the celebration of the 6th Chamorro Fest. We welcome you to share our culture.

I include two attachments below. Thank you for your time. Hope to see you at the events.

Mario,

Sakman Chamorro Project, San Diego

Our Sakman:

San Salvador Event Announcement: