From Raft to Raft by Bengt Danielsson

Author:Bengt Danielsson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 1959-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

1 Almost a year later to the day Ingris with one of his former and two new companions left Callao aboard a new balsa raft named Cantuta 11, built after the same principles as Kon-Tiki. After an uneventful voyage the raft crash-landed three months later on a reef in the Tuamotu Group.

Chapter 5

WET FEET

The day after our meeting with Pioneer Star it rained for the first time since we left Callao. It was a fine drizzle, and did not last long enough for us to replenish our water supplies, which were getting low. But we were glad of it all the same, for we regarded it as a friendly reminder from the gods of the weather that they had not forgotten us and would soon send us more and heavier showers. Immediately afterwards we got a strong favourable wind, and for several days on end it continued to blow so steadily and well that we were doing between two and two and a half knots. Consequently our spirits were very high when we drank our usual Saturday aperitif on the after-deck on May 31st, and our lively conversation was almost entirely about our festal arrival at Tahiti.

During the night the wind increased further in strength, which at first only pleased us. But when daylight came and we saw that the bow had been forced down a good four inches below the surface by the violent pressure of the wind on the sails, we immediately became rather worried and hastened to move the heaviest tanks and cases from the fore-to the after-deck. This improved matters a good deal, but the fore-deck was still not really clear of water. We were sure that the raft would straighten herself and resume her normal horizontal position if we struck or reefed the sails, hut we all preferred wetting our feet a little to reducing our good speed, the more so when the midday observation on June 2nd showed that we had covered as much as eighty miles during the last twenty-four hours, which was several miles better than our previous record.

As we should have anticipated, even in our excited state, our violent driving of the raft came to a quick end, which could easily have taken a tragic turn. During a squall in the night of June 4th~5th, while Juanito was on watch alone, the raft suddenly swung broadside to the sea and immediately took a heavy list.

‘Take in all sail, double quick,’ Eric ordered. He had grasped the situation as soon as he awoke.

We dashed out on deck with the water splashing round our legs and tried to grasp the slippery sheets and flapping sails. I had just managed, after a violent struggle, to untie a knot on my side of the cabin when I heard a thud from the other side. At the same moment someone yelled:

‘Man overboard!’

I splashed across the deck as quickly as I could and almost knocked Jean over; he was vainly searching for a rope to use as a life-line.

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