It is a true story of six men who set out from Peru in 1947. They wanted to prove that the inhabitants of Polynesia could have possibly originated in Peru, having travelled there on rafts. So the craft they built was made from balsa wood - based on historic paintings they found of early rafts built by the Peruvians.
They built a little cabin on the raft - with bamboo and banana leaves.
On their journey, they saw flying fish, crabs, an octupus, dolphins. They had quite an encounter with a gempylus (snake like fish with nasty sharp teeth). The snake like fish actually ended up in one guy's sleeping bag and sent the men scurrying around trying to find the lantern in the dark. They ended up capturing it, preserving it and learning later that no one had ever seen a live gempylus before.
They also encountered whale sharks (absolutely huge) and one with quite some personality would hover underneath their raft and tap the bottom... It would have taken no effort at all for one to capsize the raft.
Can you imagine 6 guys all cramped into a cabin on a small raft for 101 days with no ability to steer their raft... just trying to follow currents... ? Near the end of their journey they came so close to two islands only to be washed out to sea again at the last minute. They only managed to make it to land, clinging to the logs on their raft as it was picked up and thrown over a nasty, sharp coral reef. Their mast broke and the raft was severely bashed and broken but they made it. By the grace of God, I say... but not sure they believed at all.
Truly a fasinating read.
Our Josh loved it.
Here is his drawing of some fish they encountered...
I was amazed at what enthusiasm he had to draw these pictures - not the usual response when I tell him we are going to draw something. He just seemed so engaged in the story that he was rearing to go... have to keep this trick in mind for our next art lesson...
