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CONCURRENT CROSSINGS

Who: Nineteen women in Mana'olana breast cancer survivors outrigger canoe program, and 35 support crew members.

What: Forty-one-mile voyage that includes Auau Channel crossing from Maui to Lanai; a kaapuni, or circle-Lanai trip; and return to Maui on Sunday.

When: At 4:15 a.m. today pule, or prayer, at Mala Wharf, followed by 5 a.m. departure from Hanakaoo (Canoe) Beach Park, Lahaina.

How: Three 18-member crews, with six paddlers at a time making water changes every half-hour.

Who: Twenty-two members of Kawaihae Canoe Club.

What: First all-women outrigger trip from Keokea Bay, Hawaii island, to Hana.

When: From 7 to 7:30 a.m. today launch, weather permitting (prior crossings took six to seven hours).

How: One canoe and two escort boats make a 35-mile cultural voyage across Alenuihaha Channel.

ALSO FOR NATIONAL BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH:

* The inaugural Pink Passion for the Cure block party features live music, silent auction and pupu. It will be held from 4 to 9 p.m. Oct. 24 along Baldwin Avenue in Makawao town, with proceeds going to Susan G. Komen for the Cure Hawaii initiative.

In the wake of the recent Na Wahine O Ke Kai women's and Molokai Hoe men's 40.8-mile Molokai-to-Oahu outrigger canoe races, two female crews are undertaking unprecedented channel crossings today.

The Mana'olana breast cancer survivors program will field three canoes in a Paddle for Hope between Maui and Lanai for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month this month, and Kawaihae Canoe Club will launch one canoe of paddlers ages 31 to 73 in the first documented crossing by an all-women crew from Keokea Bay, Hawaii island, to Hana.

The Mana'olana breast cancer survivors outrigger canoe paddling program started on Maui three years ago on the beach fronting the Maui Lu Resort. It was patterned after the 13-year-old Abreast in a Boat initiative for breast cancer survivor crews in dragon boat racing in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Nineteen Mana'olana participants will cross the Auau Channel between Maui and Lanai starting at 5 a.m. today; then complete a kaapuni, or circle-island voyage, before returning Sunday. The endeavor will involve 54 paddlers, including support crew, plus three escort boats covering 41 miles, organizers said.

"This program is not about competition in racing. It's about the ladies, about camaraderie," said Mana'olana coach Ellen Federoff, 46, of Kihei, whose mother, grandmother and sister are all cancer survivors. Her sister is undergoing chemotherapy for a second time, she said.

"It's about hope, about these women challenging themselves, and healing," she said of the "pink ladies," who sport pink Mana'olana T-shirts.

"It's a journey of their lives; so we planned this journey."

The Maui-based Pacific Cancer Foundation sponsors Mana'olana.

"We want to expand our Mana'olana program to the Maui community and other canoe clubs," said Jeff Scharnhorst, executive director of the foundation. "We want to spread the message: You can have life after cancer. These survivors, they're the proof."

Cancer survivors paddling today include Karen Brewer, Meryl Cohen, Patricia Covici, Maria Gerry, Amy Hill, Corrine Hunt, Joanna Hutton, Nancy Long, Diantha Mackwell and Pam Miller. Other paddlers include Marilyn Robertson, Mickey Ross, Adele Rugg, Gloria Snyder, Doris Swift-Katafias, Janelle Todd, Florida Town, Heather Trenholm and Debbie Turner.

Two-time cancer survivor Robertson said she felt "blessed (to be) paddling for my dad, who died of cancer."

Ross added: "These are great paddlers. They will have no problem. I admire every one of them."

Delaware native Rugg shared a revelation from training. "I am thrilled because I am a senior citizen and I can float," she said.

The 35 support personnel include steerspersons Sharon Balidoy, Lea Giddons, Kimokeo Kapahulehua and Polly Lorge; Dr. Nancy Long of Hospice Maui; nurses Emilou Alves, Anita Anderson and Erin Fitzsimmons; water change coach Keri Mehling; and Maui County Hawaiian Canoe Association official Cliff Libed.

Kapahulehua is the indomitable adventurer who had envisioned a successful, six-year voyage via six-person outrigger traversing the 1,650-mile archipelago, including the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The self-professed voyager with a vision said he can picture 15 canoe clubs from throughout Maui County reprising the Maui/Lanai journey by breast cancer survivors in October 2010.

Kapahulehua said he could foresee: "Twenty-eight canoes with a pink logo on the left and on the right, with 118 women paddling."

Federoff called this channel crossing and kaapuni a "group effort." Sponsors include Safeway Kihei (which donated $10,000), Maui Oil Co. (escort boat fuel), Paddle Me Sportswear (pink paddling jerseys), Maui Neon (canoe banners), Four Seasons Resort Lana'i at Manele Bay (discounted rates, Saturday banquet venue), Canoes Restaurant (banquet arrangements), OluKai (slippers), and the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary (Friday carbo-loading event site).

Meanwhile, 22 Hawaii island women decided to forgo Na Wahine O Ke Kai to train for the treacherous Alenuihaha venture departing at 7 a.m. today from Keokea Bay, about 7.5 miles east of Upolu Point.

At age 73, Eunice Veincent is group matriarch of this, her third Alenuihaha crossing.

"I'm very excited, especially because of my age," the kupuna said by phone. "It's a challenge for me, being I'm paddling with a lot of young women, most in their 40s and 50s. I am the only one older than everybody else."

Her husband, Kawaihae Canoe Club founder Manuel "Manny" Veincent, is coaching the crew, and daughter Kahealani Veincent, 45, is paddling. The Veincents run more than 100 head of cattle on their 200-acre Lehua Ranch at Nienie, Waimea.

Manny Veincent said videographers had documented the prior two Hawaii/Maui voyages, as they will this one. He plans to edit five to six hours of footage from the three channel crossings into a video to be shared with Maui residents.

"It's very, very exciting and very spiritual," he said of the voyage. "Alenuihaha is an unbelievable channel. It makes the Molokai (race) look like a bathtub wash. The Kaiwi Channel cannot compare to Alenuihaha. They're both completely different."

Today's trip will be "a good challenge. The wind and current . . . change as you go across; they're unpredictable," he said.

The odyssey will be a voyage of discovery, he suggested.

"A lot of it has to do with their attitude, their own personal feelings, their own thoughts through the procedure of crossing," said the retired Waimea fire captain. "They will find out who they are after a while. The main thing is it's a spiritual crossing."

He said the women fundraised up to $14,000 needed for the trip. Maui supporters include Kapahulehua; Kula waterman Mike Spalding, who has handled Maui logistics; and Hana resident Robert Malaikini.

"I feel extremely grateful, humbled and honored to be paddling," said Kawaihae crew member Kim Takata, 49, of Waimea. "I have learned to push beyond what I think my limits are, both physically and mentally, and that feels great!

"We began practicing for long distance in February," the former Virginia resident added. "I wish I had a pedometer that showed how many miles we have logged in practices this year. . . . Our training involves learning to blend and working as one."

As the unprecedented transchannel events were set to unfold this weekend, Federoff praised the fortifying, healing dynamic in an outrigger canoe.

"I love it," said Federoff, who works as coordinator of the Digital Bus educational outreach project. "These amazing ladies, they have strength and courage that I've never seen in people before.

"They're so positive, so enthusiastic. The love that they bring to the canoe every day, it's amazing."

* Kekoa Enomoto can be reached at kekoa@mauinews.com.