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Post by Chips on Aug 12, 2011 9:33:12 GMT 9.5
1947 - The balsa wood raft Kon-Tiki, which had carried a six-man crew 4,300 miles across the Pacific Ocean, crashed into a reef in a Polynesian archipelago.
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Post by Mac McFadden on Aug 13, 2011 8:02:12 GMT 9.5
I remember reading Hyerdahl's book when I was in 6th grade. He also crossed the Atlantic in a papyrus raft years later. "The Ra Expeditions"When he was building the Ra, someone took a piece of papyrus, put it in a tank of water, and watched it sink. "See," they told him, "your raft will never float." Thor took a piece of steel and put it in the tank. It sank to the bottom. "See," he replied, "you can't make boats out of steel either." Mac
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Post by Chips on Aug 15, 2011 6:41:37 GMT 9.5
The Kontiki Expedition was the first serious book I ever read and from that moment on I was hooked on factual adventure stories.
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Post by Mac McFadden on Aug 15, 2011 7:05:08 GMT 9.5
Years later Heyerdahl built a second balsa boat. And Peruvian natives showed him how to navigate it instead of just floating along with the current. (That's why I called it a "boat" instead of a "raft".)
Mac
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