Yesterday, January 24, 2007, between 11 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., the canoes (assuming they are fairly close together) traveled about 25 nautical miles in the general direction of Komohana or West at a speed of 4.5 knots.

This information was determined from latitude-longitude fixes using the following website: http://www.movable-type.co.uk/scripts/LatLong.html

If you have two fixes, this website will give you:

(1) the distance between the two fixes in kilometers (which you can convert to nautical miles by multiplying the number by .54)

(2) the bearing traveled in degrees (which you can convert to a direction on the English or Hawaiian compass, using the illustration at http://pvs.kcc.hawaii.edu/2007voyage/2007starcompass.html )

(3) a Google map (with awesome graphics) showing the distance and direction traveled between the two points.

So by inputting the first fixes from the canoes on Jan. 24, 19.08129, -156.08240 at 11 a.m. and 19.03851, -156.51601 at 4:30 p.m. (a minus sign before the lat./long. number means S latitude or W longitude; no sign means N latitude or E longitude), we can estimate that in the 5.5 hours between 11 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., the canoes have traveled:

(1) 45.82 kilometers or 24.74 nautical miles

(2) with a bearing (in the direction) of 264 degrees 6 minutes, which equates to a direction between Komohana, or West, and La/Kona, or West by South, the general direction of Johnston Atoll from Kona district, Hawai'i.

(3) The speed of the canoes averaged 4.5 knots (24.74 nautical miles divided by 5.5 hours).

An explanation of Knots, Nautical Miles, Latitude and Longitude, and Compass Directions can be found at http://virtualskies.arc.nasa.gov/navigation/tutorial/tutorial5.html