The accomplishments of this man make us amazed by the abilities of human beings. As part of his graduate studies he went to an isolated Pacific island Fatu Hiva with nothing and lived off the land and studied the local wildlife. Together with his wife they survived. He leaned of a local legend of Tiki a chief who sailed from a big land to the east. He equated this with the Peruvian legend of con tici a chieftain who sailed to the west after his tribe had been massacred. He wrote a thesis that listed similarities in idolatry, the Tiki legend and ethnological traits within the south Pacific islanders and the Peruvians. He proposed that the Peruvians must have traveled the 4000 miles to these islands. No one would publish it so he thought he would prove that it was possible, by sailing there himself. He used ancient drawings as a blueprint to make a 40 foot balsa wood boat Kon Tiki. With five of his friends (one of them a famous Norwegian Resistance fighter who was on the heavy water depot attack) help from the US Navy and the blessing of the Peruvian president they took off. No one of the crew had sailing experience and no one thought his boat would hold together. They planned for a 100 day trip and 101 days later they ran aground on a reef. All this in 1947. The radio bulletins he sent out with status and position were a world wide hit. Then in 1969 he did basically the same thing with a red boat from Morocco to within 600 miles of Barbados. After a storm they abandoned Ra but the next year he made the 3400 mile Atlantic crossing in Ra 2. He was not yet done, in 1977 he made another boat and sailed down the Tigres, the gulf and was on his way to the red sea when he was halted by Yemni military. He burned his boat in protest. This isn't even half of his accomplishments! What a badass.
Waiting for the bus we see this buff guy on urban skis.
He had to stop for people in the crosswalk
Crowded bus free with our Oslo card
40 foot long 4000 miles on the Pacific
His actual log book
Ra 2
Ra on deck
Ra ra ra
Kon Tiki the actual boat
The set up
He flew a Norwegian flag but each member was of a different nationality and he flew the UN flag on Ra
Clever way to tie the logs
One of many artifacts
Riding low towards the end of the sail
