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Parrot and six Vikings on Kon-Tiki 2005
Sep 8, 2004 11: 56 EST
They'll leave Lima, Peru April 28 next year and plan to arrive in Tahiti, Polynesia 101 days later. They'll sail in an exact copy of Thor Heyerdahl's balsa raft Kon-Tiki. They are one parrot, five Norwegians and one Swede, and their "The Tangaroa Expedition," is timing the expedition for Norway's centennial celebrations, marking 100 years since the country broke out of a forced union with Sweden in 1905.
Missing - a navigator
"We still need a navigator with a sailing background," says expedition leader Torgeir Sæverud Higraff.
Thor's grandchild Olav, a carpenter, building engineer and diver is on board, to build the raft and see to repairs.
His Grandfather, Thor Heyerdahl, who died in Italy at age 87 of brain cancer in April 2002, made the 8,000-kilometer trip ((4,900 miles) in 1947 and thus proved that oceans couldn't isolate civilizations and ancient mariners. Thor's theory was that the South Sea Islands were settled by explorers from pre-Incan South America, rather than people from Southeast Asia.
Better steering
Although the Tangaroa will be primitive, it will carry modern technology: Solar panels, satellite navigation and communications to transmit dispatches throughout the voyage.
They also hope to come up with better steering; The original Kon-Tiki was largely subject to the whim of wind and currents because it was not possible to sail it against the wind. At the end of its journey, the raft crashed onto a reef because the crew couldn't change course.
The original Balsa forrest is gone
The trouble is that the world has changed since 1947. The forrest where the Balsa for Kon-Tiki was collected is gone, and the river for the balsa transportation has narrowed to a trickle. The crew will have to go elsewhere to find balsa for their raft. They will start to build it in December.
Thor Heyerdahls expeditions
Thor Heyerdahl, was just 23 years old when he and his first wife, Liv Coucheron Torp, first set off for Polynesia. They spent a year in the then-remote Marquesas, studying the native population and its origins. The couple later divorced, with Liv marrying into the American Rockefeller family and Heyerdahl remarrying as well.
Kon-Tiki
In 1947, Heyerdahl set off from Peru in a balsam boat he called "Kon-Tiki." He landed in the Tuamotu Islands. More expeditions followed, including his first to Easter Island in 1955 with second wife Yvonne and family.
Ra I & II
In 1969, at the age of 55, Heyerdahl wanted to prove that South American populations originated through immigrants from the African continent. Another raft, the "Ra," set off from Morocco but Heyerdahl and crew abandoned it in the eastern Caribbean. Ra II made the trip successfully in 1970 and proved it was possible for ancient cultures to sail on currents over the Atlantic.
Tigris
In 1977 Thor made yet another raft expedition, this one from the Persian Gulf on board the "Tigris."
Image of Kon-Tiki 1947 and Olav, Thor's grandson, courtesy fischinger.alien.de and .vg.no
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