Kon-Tiki2 is sailing two balsa rafts from South America to Easter Island. Roundtrip. Documenting climate change, marine life, plastics, pollution, guara board navigation, and human reactions to Pacific sunsets.
Thor Heyerdahl proved that ancient South Americans could drift across the Pacific on their rafts. It was a ethnological theory he worked on all his career. Is there more to be done? I think so, and this is what the Kon-Tiki2 Expedition is all about.
Kon-Tiki could not be steered, they could not set a course, keep it, nor define destination. The Kon-Tiki could never have reached a specific target, especially not Easter Island which is too far south for the prevailing currents. Still, Heyerdahl was the first to provide knowledge about balsa rafts in modern times. He provoked the archaeologists and ethnologists to dig into the prehistory of Polynesia, and inspired millions of people academically.
Heyerdahl proved that balsa rafts could carry people for months at sea. But ancient South Americans could do more: they could steer their rafts, and navigate anywhere in the Pacific. When wind and current push us on Rahiti Tane and Tupac Yupanqui north, we sail towards west and even southeast. How is this possible? Because we are not copying Kon-Tiki, we are copying the rafts from prehistory and early history based on archaeological and historical evidence Heyerdahl was not aware of in 1947. Coastal maritime civilizations in South America had sophisticated navigation skills. Like them, we use guara boards (also called dagger boards) to set course. On our rafts, we adjust he guara boards day and night and we document all major movements of the boards.
Recent studies have shown that South American DNA entered Easter Island between 1300AD and 1500AD. The Kon-Tiki2 Expedition shows how people could have traveled there, and how they sailed back. We also present how Polynesians could sail their rafts to South America. No one has sailed between Easter Island and South America on a raft in modern times. We are well on our way on the first leg, but the biggest challenges are still ahead. Follow the Kon-Tiki2 Expedition.
