High-Tech Kon-Tiki

Almost six decades after Thor Heyerdahl made his epic journey on a balsa raft that lasted 101 days, the voyage is to be recreated. The rafters, if you like, will be launching a traditional balsa raft but it will have high tech accoutrements such as a solar panel on the roof to make electricity, satellite navigation and communications. Oh yes, the name will be changed. Kon Tiki was the Sun God of pre-Inca days. Tangaroa is the Polynesian god of the ocean.

The Tangaroa Expedition has received financial backing from Norway's Environment Ministry, which is another deviation from the original voyage because Heyerdahl was forced to scrounge support where ever he could find it such as from the US Army, which supplied the survival rations used and tested during the trip from Peru to wherever the raft took them. It turned out to be a remote island in the Tuamotus. The Kon-Tiki Museum has endorsed the endeavour.

The purpose of this second journey is twofold: to honor Thor Heyerdahl and to draw attention to environmental threats to the land and to the sea. The voyagers plan to take samples along the way, in keeping with Heyerdahl's practice, which resulted in a plethora of observations about life in the ocean as well samples that astounded marine biologists.

One other change, perhaps even an improvement, is the enhancement of the steering capability of the new raft. This remains to be seen.

Polynesian Triangle

Thor Heyerdahl was concerned with how how the Polynesians migrated into the Pacific. Ask anyone who has sailed the Pacifc and you will be told that there are two factors at play that must be considered when you set sail for distant ports of call: ocean currents and prevailing winds. The winds and the currents are part and parcel of Heyerdahl's migration theory. There is a counter prevailing theory known colloquially as the safety theory. The suggestion is that early explorers into the Pacific beat to windward from the coast of Asia or the islands of the East Indies. If or perhaps when, they encountered difficulties they could always run for home.

The safety theory is part of the readiness to deny Thor Heyerdahl's theory. Unfortunately it is voiced almost entirely by academics, who undoubtedly are landlubbers. Polynesians themselves were filled with gratitude that a European had gone so far as to recognize their oral traditions instead of denying their relevance. That being said, if there is an academically correct theory (AC) out there about the migration of Polynesians into the Pacific, there is still one thing missing.

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