As if to emphasize this point, by late afternoon of that first day the trade wind had picked up to full strength, carrying a storm upon its back that whipped up the seas, and delivering the balsa raft and crew their first real test of sea worthiness. This rendered them at the mercy of a limited angle of wind and the prevailing currents flow as it would be impossible to tack a longitudinal course-heading in order to significantly change their latitude. Because the sail of the raft was essentially a ‘fixed’ design, they soon found that unless the prevailing wind was placed near directly astern, the craft would simply rotate until the sail filled again with the bow and stern having switched places. Slowly the raft began to move as a steady SE wind blew in, the steering oar was set, and the process of learning the finer art of ancient Peruvian raftsmanship begun. As the Guardian Rios steamed away after successfully delivering craft and crew into open water, the Kon-Tiki unfurled its sail…and waited.
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