Kon-Tiki crew rescued off coast of Chile



The Chilean Navy has rescued 14 crew members from two rafts that were swept up in strong currents off the country’s coast.

The team were attempting to emulate the famous Kon-Tiki voyage of 1947, and document climate change when they were swept off course by what the expedition leader Torgeir Higraff described as ‘atypical’ winds. Higraff said that ‘In a normal year, we would have reached South America by now.’

The group had set sail in early January from Chile’s Easter Island but sent a distress signal on Wednesday bringing their voyage to an end for safety reasons. All crew were said to be in good health.

The original expedition set sail from Peru in 1947, led by Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl. He set out to prove a theory that winds and marine currents made it possible to travel between South America and Polynesia by raft. A tale which inspired many books and films.

-- (c) Copyright Euronews 2016-03-19

Thor Heyerdahl build the real replica of the raft from as I remember Titicaca Lake material like this on the photo, but the new one is totally differently build from logs. This is original Kon Tiki

Thor Heyerdahl and Kon-Tiki were very inspirational to me when I was younger.

Atypical winds, what else would you expect during the strongest El Nino on record. Knuckleheads.

Kon-Tiki crew rescued off coast of Chile

For a moment though I'd entered a time warp

Any attempt to replicate the original Kon-Tiki expedition using todays technology and equipment would not be worthy of the original voyage.

Heyerdahl was out to prove the concept was plausible, and he did.

I appreciate the intention of doing it again to compare climate conditions, but IMO no need to do the primitive vessel again, not now that the Earth has a new child, El Nino, and it would be sailing right through his cradle.

Thor Heyerdahl is turning over in his grave. Both his books, Kon Tiki and Ra were super inspirational to me and an eye opener. These other clowns were inspired by Pee Wee Herman.