Outrigger canoe in 6500km journey

Press, 12 August 1985, Page 5

Outrigger canoe in 6500km journey

NZPA-AFP Dzaoudzi, Mayotte A primitive outrigger eanoe, with a crew including a New Zealander, has arrived on the French-ruled island of Mayotte, near Madagascar, after crossing nearly 6500 km from Indonesia.

The canoe travelled in “atrocious” weather to prove that Madagascar could have been populated by Indonesians 2000 to 3000 years ago.

On August 6, outside the Malagasy Indian Ocean port of Diego Suarez, the canoe encountered heavy seas that damaged an outrigger, forcing a distress call that was answered by a French Navy vessel.

The warship towed it to the safety of Dzaoudzi, the capital of the French-ruled island of Mayotte.

The 20-metre Sarimanok was made entirely with materials available 3000 years ago and has no metal parts. The sails are made of palm fibre and the

outriggers of bamboo. The crew of eight survived on such food available at the time as rice and coconut and used celestial navigation despite a cloud cover that the sun pierced only five days out of 70.

“The weather was atrocious, very bad for this time of year,” said the leader of the’ expedition, Bob Hobman, a Briton. The canoe will be repaired at Dzaoudzi. Hobman said in an interview that “the maritime museum in Fort Jesus, Mombasa (Kenya) wants the Sarimanok, but the Malagasy people are asking for her as well.”

During the trip, he said: “It rained every day. In 50 nights at sea, we slept dry only four times. Salt water sores made life uncomfortable for all the crew and after the half-way point the canoe was leaking badly. When the navy rescued us, we were bailing almost continuously. “Two days from Bali, one

crew became very ill and conditions were so bad it was impossible for him to rest and recover. We had to make an emergency stop at Cocos Island, 1000 miles from Bali, to have him taken off,” Hobman said.

"About 400 miles from Madagascar, the photographer, Don King, was repairing an outrigger and a wave swept him into the sea. He caught a rattan lashing at the end of the outrigger and we pulled him aboard with a rope,” he said.

“After this, I will begin at the end of next year to build a Spanish galleon in the Philippines to follow the seventeeth-century trading route across the Pacific from Manila to Acapulco,” Hobman said. In addition to Hobman the crew included an American, Bill McGrath; three Britons, Robin Davy, Sally Crook and Stephen Corrigan; a West German, Albrecht Schaefer, an Australian, Peter Rogers; and a New Zealander, Colin Putt.