Alingano Maisu sails to Saipan

The Alingano Maisu, which made the voyage from Palau to Saipan for the last three months under the leadership of grand master navigator Sesario Sewralur, picks up community members for a day trip to Managaha to pay respects to Chief Aghurub. (KIMBERLY B. ESMORES)

The twin-hulled traditional vessel Alingano Maisu, captained by master navigator Sesario Sewralur, made its first voyage from Palau to Saipan since the global COVID-19 pandemic halted most travels, docking at the Smiling Cover Marina during the duration of their stay.

In celebration of its successful voyage to Saipan in years, the Maisu took dozens of community members to Managaha last Saturday for free, in order to pay respects to Carolinian Chief Aghurub, who is buried on the island.

According to Sewralur, the Maisu has been making the voyage to Saipan almost annually since 2009. However, due to the pandemic, the voyage was suspended. Fortunately, they were able to make it out this year.

Before hitting the waves, Saipan Tribune managed to speak with Sewralur and master navigator Mario Benito on their journey from Palau to Saipan aboard the Maisu.

“This is a voyage we’ve been doing for some time. We have a program on Palau that we merged with the Palau Community College. The program started in August and May to July is when we go sailing as training for these students. We’ve been doing this since 2009. This is the first voyage we’ve made to Saipan since COVID hit,” he said.

When asked how the three-month long voyage went, Sewralur said the first few days were rough but it got better and he is happy that they made it to Saipan safely.

“It was a hard voyage in the beginning, for the first 19 days. But we made it here in almost three months. A total of 13 made the voyage to Saipan,” he said.

After spending about a week on Saipan, Sewralur said he and his crew are set to make their way home this week.

“We’re leaving back to Palau this week. We will stop over on Yap and from Yap, we will head back to Palau. We went through most of the Micronesian Islands on our way here so on our way back, we’ll skip most of the islands,” Sewralur said.

As for the weekend trip to Managaha, Sewralur said he was happy to see so many people come out to join them pay respects to their chief.

“We wanted to sail to Managaha to pay respects to our Chief Aghurub. We’re so happy and proud to have this many people join us to pay respect to our chief. That is our main goal in having this trip—to make the community understand how this program works and how important voyaging is for our culture,” he said.

Meanwhile, in an interview with Benito, he said it is the first year 500 Sails joined the voyage. Benito is a senior sakman leader for 500 Sails, a non-profit group based on Saipan that wants to revive the CNMI’s maritime tradition.

“500 Sails joined the voyage from Palau to Saipan. This is the first year we’ve joined,” he said.

As for the Managaha trip, Benito said about two or three trips had to be made because a lot of people showed up to help pay respects to the ancient chief.

“We made this trip to pay respect to our chief and we want the community to come join us on the trek. Looks like a lot of people showed up today to join us on the journey. We had to do like two to three trips,” he said.