While there, legends shared by village elders ignited his passion for understanding the connection between ancient Polynesian and Peruvian people. Ten years before, Thor, a zoological researcher, traveled to the isolated South Pacific Marquesas Islands to study the flora and fauna. It had been an epic voyage, one that engulfed the world with intrigue as they provided their updates via radio throughout the trip, a feat thought impossible, and considered a suicide mission by many in the beginning. They had sailed for 101 days in the Pacific waters, over 4,300 nautical miles, and their arrival, although it hadn't been easy, proved that ancient voyage from South America to Polynesia was possible. Just a few weeks after that night, their raft reached shore near Tahiti. At night, bioluminescent creatures including giant squid turn the waters around them into glowing art displays. Once, a curious 30 foot whale shark circled them for nearly an hour, terrifying the men that its massive body would accidentally flip their craft.
The seaweed and barnacles that grow on the bottom of the raft attract a wide array of fish and, therefore, sharks. During the day, dolphins and sometimes giant sea turtles swim next to them. They've also become accustomed to strange sights on this trip. So many land on the boat that each morning, the cook collects them for an easy meal.
He picks it up and gently throws it back into the water without a second thought. Thor believed the ancient people of Peru once settled on the Polynesian islands, 4,300 nautical miles away, by following the ocean winds and currents in the sea, and he wanted to prove it.Ī small flying fish lands in Thor's lap as he writes. Two months before, they set sail from the Peruvian coast of South America with their eyes set on crossing the Pacific Ocean and arriving to the islands of Polynesia. He is one of 6 men on the raft, and is also the organizer of the voyage. Thor Heyerdahl is sitting on deck writing about the day's events in his journal. Made of very large balsa wood logs at the base and a simple bamboo deck and half-open hut on board, the entire craft is 45 feet long and utilizes only hemp rope to hold the materials together - no nails or wire or any other form of modern technology. A wooden raft, pushed along by ocean currents, floats peacefully under the starry sky. It is nighttime in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, July 1947.
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