The Ra II is now kept in a museum in Norway where my wife and I were able to see it. It is pretty amazing that all of those reeds held this thing together. The first Ra failed due to cutting the wrong rope 3/4 of the way to their destination. They caught numerous amazing fish on their
Atlantic crossing in 1970 though, even a large a whale shark. They would have starved without the fish they caught, and they did not have Penn Internationals on board.
The Ra II looked like two of those reed kayaks with a hut on top. Pretty cool stuff.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sebastian
The caption from the paper
"Early in the morning, the men of Huanchaco, a village on the north coast of Peru, set out with their gill nets and caballitos de tortora (little horses of reeds) to fish. The vessels are made of reeds that grow nearby. The same type of reed grows in the Lake Titicaca region, where Thor Heyerdahl built his 40-foot Ra II that crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 1970."
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