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NEWS
SYDNEY BOAT SHOW: Las Balsas expedition
The amazing voyage from Ecuador to Ballina by raftOn May 27, 1973, three rafts each measuring 46ft long and 18ft wide, made of nine massive balsa logs secured together only with wooden pegs and handmade sisal ropes, set out on a daring 8600 mile voyage across the whole Pacific Ocean from Ecuador to Australia.
Each raft carried four men and enough water for a few weeks but after that they had to rely on rainwater. Canned meat and vegetables were stocked but the main diet was seafood. In the hot weather, each man apparently drank a pint of seawater a day to compensate for the lack of salt from dehydration.
The rafts were each propelled by a huge heavy cloth sail and steered by 'guayas,' which are vertical planks pushed down between the logs at the bow and stern.
There was a collection of two monkeys, three cats and parrots aboard. The sailors relied on the ocean when their limited food rations ran out and took shelter in the most minimalist of structures.
The purpose of the voyage in these rafts, which were replicas of those used by South American natives when the Spanish explorers arrived there in 1526, was to prove that the Pacific Islands were populated by migrations from South America in such craft centuries before. Scientists had previously thought that impossible.
The rafts drifted by the Galapagos Islands, The Society, The Cook Islands, Tonga, and past south of New Caledonia. There were no engines, no GPS, no mobile phone (but short-range radios) and there was no sight of land… until they eventually saw Mooloolaba in SE Queensland.
From there, they drifted south and were eventually towed into Ballina on the NSW North Coast on November 21, 160 days later.
Almost 40-years on, Ecuador’s Elyse Guevara-Rattray, daughter of Luis Anibal Guevara who was one of 12 men on the rafts, will take to the MyBoatingLife stage at the Sydney International Boat Show to share the details of and pre-empt the ruby-anniversary celebrations of this amazing feat.
A raft -- the result of combining 'the best' of the two rafts that successfully made it to shore -- now resides in the Ballina Naval and Maritime Museum. The third raft was so waterlogged it was abandoned.
Friends of Las Balsas are trying to raise funds to mount a 40th Anniversary celebration. Meantime, you can learn about this amazing voyage – the first and only multiple raft crossing of the Pacific in modern times -- at the presentation given by Guevara-Rattray at the Sydney boat show opening August 1. More at http://lasbalsas.com.au.
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Written byBoatsales Staff
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