Hokulea, the famous Hawaiian canoe that has navigated the Pacific, will soon have a sister to help it sail farther than ever.

A state-of-the-art voyaging canoe called Hikianalia departed from New Zealand Tuesday and is expected to arrive in Hilo next month.

Hikianalia was built to serve as Hokulea‘s escort on a three-year trip around the world, departing in June. The boat will serve as a science education platform and safety vessel among other things.

The high-tech, eco-friendly, double-hulled Hikianalia will be the first canoe to assist Hokulea, said Kim Kuulei Birnie, spokeswoman for the Polynesian Voyaging Society. The society works to perpetuate traditional Polynesian voyaging through educational programs for students.

The whole effort is expected to cost $10 million, she said, adding that it wouldn’t be possible without community support and investment.

The public will learn more about the around-the-world trip in the spring, but in the meantime the Polynesian Voyaging Society is providing daily updates online. Crew members aboard Hikianalia are sharing celestial observations, reporting on animal life and giving daily positions as they travel from Auckland to Tahiti.

In Tahiti, there will be a change of crew so as many people as possible can familiarize themselves with the canoe before the big trip next year.

Bob Perkins, a U.S. Coast Guard captain, will take command at that point for the trip to Hawaii. He told Civil Beat Tuesday he felt very honored to be the captain of the canoe that will serve as the companion boat for Hokulea.

Perkins and his 13-member crew expect to learn a lot as they sail the Hikianalia the 2,381 miles to Hilo. If they can do 200 miles a day, he said it should take 12 days to complete the journey — putting them on the Big Island by the middle of November.

Perkins said he has done some ocean sailing before, but mostly on catamarans as opposed to voyaging canoes. While the two are similar, he said there is a big difference in the sense of ohana, or family, that is generally felt on voyaging canoes.

“The canoe is somewhat of a living thing,” he said. “The canoe is the mother, and whether you’re Hawaiian, Polynesian or Norwegian like myself, you can’t help but get involved in that kind of feeling.”

The isolation during the trip — just being a long way from anyone else in any direction — creates a kinship among the crew, Perkins said.

“I’m looking forward to all the crew members learning and becoming part of a bigger whole,” he said. “Hopefully we can show the world what malama honua, or heal the earth, means through the trip.”

Like Hokulea, Hikianalia carries a Hawaiian star name, a Polynesian Voyaging Society news release says. Spica rises together with Arcturus (Hokulea) in Hawaii.

“They are sister stars because they break the horizon together,” master navigator Bruce Blankenfeld said in the release.

Blankenfeld, who is the Hikianalia’s captain from Aotearoa to Tahiti, said the boat has great balance and sails beautifully.

“Like all canoes, she’s definitely a living entity and will be a faithful companion to Hokulea during the worldwide voyage,” he said.

Hikianalia has electric rather than diesel motors, and in-board propellers, according to the release. The canoe is 72 feet long, 23 feet wide, and weighs 30,000 gross tons. Each of Hikianalia’s hulls contains an electric motor powered by onboard photovoltaic panels that convert sunlight to electric propulsive energy.

The Polynesian Voyaging Society spokeswoman said the Hokulea, with its sister Hikianalia, plan to visit 21 countries during the worldwide trip covering 46,000 nautical miles.

“It’s a real ambitious undertaking and they’ve been preparing for it since 2008,” Birnie said.

The Dalai Lama blessed the Hokulea during his visit to Hawaii in April as part of the launch of the new Hawaii Community Foundation initiative called “Pillars of Peace Hawaii: Building Peace on a Foundation of Aloha.”

The blessing came five weeks after the Hokulea came out of dry dock. Crews spent 18 months completely rebuilding it for the upcoming worldwide voyage.