Windless weather and tropical heat troubled us very little. The head on the sail was copied from a stone carving of Kon-Tiki, the prehistoric chieftain who led a fair-skinned civilized people across the Pacific 1,500 years ago. It sometimes happened that bonitos swam on board with the waves.īeneath Kon-Tiki’s bearded face. On opposite page: Watzinger with a bonito. From left: Watzinger, Haugland, Raaby, Danielsson, the author. The walls were of plaited bamboo and the roof of banana leaves, so that we almost felt we were in a virgin forest instead of at sea. Inside the bamboo cabin we were protected against both wind and tropical sun. There were fish enough in the sea to feed a whole flotilla of rafts. It jumped on board one night and got into Torstein’s sleeping bag.Ī bout with a tunny was an exciting sport. We were the first to see a living snake mackerel (Latin name Gempylus). All their wartime training was required to keep the little radio station going in spray and dew a foot above the surface of the water.Īn unusual bedfellow. Knut and Torstein were always doing something with their wet dry batteries, soldering irons, and circuits.
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