A diverse group of Hawaiian outrigger canoe paddlers has stroked a six-man canoe the entire 1,650-mile length of the Hawaiian archipelago.

The improbable voyage began with the 85-mile crossing from the Big Island to Maui in 2003 and ended near Kure Atoll, the most northwestern Hawaiian island, on July 14. Bringing the canoe back to Kaua'i on the escort boat took another week.

"The whole concept was so off the chart," participant Pepe Trask said of the multisegment, multiyear journey, that even most die-hard canoe paddlers called "crazy."

Participant Chris Luedi of Maui said that even for himself and the other two Maui men who paddled every leg of the voyage, "it was the fulfillment of something that up until the last minute we didn't know we could do."

Over the life of the voyage, paddlers included both Hawai'i and Mainland residents, people with Hawaiian ancestry and those of other heritages, dozens of men, a few teenage boys and four women. Occupations ran the gamut and ages ranged from 16 to 63.

Twelve to 16 paddlers rotated hourlong shifts in the six-man boat until each segment between islands was done.

In the end, it took more than 60 paddlers and $400,000 to finish the adventure.

Along the way, core participants formed the nonprofit Hawaiian Outrigger Canoe Voyaging Society, and are now planning a second journey through the main Hawaiian Islands next spring — and considering long-distance paddles in Tonga, American Samoa and even Rapa Nui.

Both companies and individuals have been generous in helping cover costs, though there is a bit of a deficit at this point, said Kaua'i resident Kendall Struxness, the voyaging society's president.

"It's wonderful how people want to be a part of something like this," Struxness said. "Plenty of people gave $20 or $100, and a couple of people on Maui wrote a check for 10 grand."

The journey's visionary, Kimokeo "Uncle Bully" Kapahulehua of Maui, said for him the greatest gift of the journey was "the sense of 'ohana, bringing together different people from all walks of life, all different nationalities."

On the open ocean, the escort boat became the "land" and interdependence among the paddlers was paramount, Kapahulehua said.

"It didn't matter if individuals were female or male, big or small, strong or weak," Kapahulehua said. "Whatever crew was in the canoe was a great crew and a strong crew."

VARYING BACKGROUNDS

The Swiss-born Luedi, 49 and now regional vice president of Hawai'i's two Fairmont hotels, was general manager of the Fairmont Kea Lani at Wailea, Maui, when the chain acquired the Fairmont Orchid at Waikoloa on the Big Island.

Kapahulehua, 60, who works as a culturalist at the Maui hotel, got Luedi involved in the 2003 paddle from one hotel property to another, "to join the two hotel 'ohanas," Luedi said.

The third man who made every trip in the odyssey is Maui resident Jamie Woodburn, 60, who was point man for the difficult logistics of paddling into the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. It was there that distances between islands increased from fewer than 100 miles per paddling segment up to a maximum of 450 miles.

At some points in the July 11-14 paddle, just getting from the escort boat into the inflatable boat to get to the canoe was a test in timing as the two crafts rode up and down 12-foot swells.

Trask, a 56-year-old retired trial lawyer and longtime canoe paddler who lives on Kaua'i, said he wouldn't have joined the quest if anyone else had been leading it.

But Kapahulehua, who is recognized for fishpond restorations, canoe paddling and other cultural activities on Maui, as well as his cultural teachings for tourists, had the "mana" to pull it together, Trask said. "Because it was him, we all agreed to do it."

Even Kapahulehua says it's unlikely that ancient Hawaiians ever paddled an outrigger canoe past Nihoa Island — 170 miles northwest of Kaua'i. They more likely used sailing canoes for long voyages, to bring enough water and food, he said.

"But Hawaiians were a strong people," Kapahulehua said.

Kapahulehua named the canoe for the voyages Ke Alaka'i O Kou Mau Kupuna, or "the pathway of our ancestors" and credits his uncle Kawika Kapahulehua with encouraging the journey.

WORD OF MOUTH

While still connecting the main Hawaiian Islands during 2003 and 2004, no single paddle lasted longer than a day. The project still was loosely joined, with people hearing about it by word of mouth, and joining up for a segment. An escort boat and other support for these runs cost in the neighborhood of $1,000, said Struxness, 47.

Trips within the main Hawaiian Islands used rotating crews of 12 to 14 paddlers and made changes in the water, as is done in other long-distance canoe races.

Because of a higher risk of sharks and more severe seas, starting with Nihoa in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, the crews made "dry changes," using an inflatable boat to ferry paddlers from the escort boat to the canoe. And they did the longer runs with a team of 16 paddlers, which allowed periodic three-hour breaks.

The O'ahu-to-Kaua'i crossing in 2004 was when things started to get interesting.

"After all, Kamehameha I tried to do that channel twice and failed," said Trask, who joined for that leg and never looked back.

In 2006, the group got one of the first educational permits offered by the new Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, which enabled that year's paddle from Mokumanamana (Necker Island) to Laysan Island to be within the 1,200-mile-long protected area.

In 2007, the group was not granted a permit by the monument. So it planned this year's run to operate outside the monument's territory, which has strict rules about access.

TRYING CONDITIONS

Using Global Positioning System measurements, they started even with Laysan Island, their last stopping point in 2006, at 4:30 p.m. on July 11 and finished even with Kure Atoll at 5 p.m. on July 14, Luedi explained.

Trask described his routine during the one-hour breaks from paddling: "In the first 10 minutes, I'd shower and change, hydrate and eat something. Then I'd go to sleep for 40 minutes and get up 10 minutes before we had to go back in the canoe. Those were the 40 quickest minutes in the universe."

Struxness said the trip diet consisted of fresh fish, poi and taro root, vegetables and fruit and "lots and lots of fluids."

Conditions were challenging, with swells up to 12 feet, cross-currents, and wind up to 20 knots. But there was never a time when the group thought of stopping, the paddlers said.

Each night after the moon set in the early morning, the paddlers paddled on in deep black, with only stars to guide them. When it was cloudy, they steered by their escort boat's lights.

Luedi credited Kapahulehua for requiring strict safety protocols. "At 3 a.m, with the wind howling and the waves going, you really, truly understand how insignificant mankind is," Luedi said.

When the canoe reached a point equivalent with Kure Atoll the afternoon of July 14, the paddlers stopped and gave each other high-fives, Struxness said.

But they couldn't really relax until the canoe was safely aboard the escort boat, the Lady Alice. Then they had an 'awa ceremony, thanked the ancestors, thanked one another and "it was pretty emotional," Struxness said.

At dawn on July 15, the paddlers got to see Kure Atoll as they transited through monument waters, which is allowed without a permit.

At Kure, Trask said, the "sea out there is the darkest blue you could ever imagine — close to black."

PARADISE FOUND

The day they passed the tiny atoll, the sky was gray from horizon to horizon, Trask said. "And in the middle of this dark blue ocean is the turquoiselike glowing," where shallower water over sand gives the atoll waters a lighter color.

"It was an oasis in middle of desert," Trask said. "It was unbelievable."

He added, "This was not, 'Rah-rah, let's go make a record.' " It was more of a connection with the Hawaiian kupuna, said Trask, who is part-Hawaiian, noting that paddlers shared that sentiment regardless of whether they have Hawaiian blood.

For Struxness, just going on this final leg was a gift, since he is undergoing treatment for a recurrence of colon cancer.

"I really didn't know if I could be 100 percent for my guys, but they said they wanted me to come," Struxness said. "That was inspiration to me. They had the faith in me to do it."

Struxness said he trained for the trip as he has in the past, with paddling, nutrition and a weight program. "What it boils down to is mental," he said. "Shutting down aches and pains, tiredness and blisters. When your body is telling you to stop, you've got to push on."

Two videographers from Soul Fabric Films of Boulder, Colo., were aboard the escort boat for the Laysan-to-Kure finale and plan to release an independent documentary tentatively titled "The Voyagers" in 2009.