The Kon-Tiki Adventure: The Kon-Tiki Is Born
The Balsa logs were tied and the men were now working on creating a cabin. It would protect the crew and be used to store food and other precious belongings.
“What should we call the boat?” asked Mira. Anything like ‘Queen of the Pacific’ or ‘The Pearl’ seemed very pretentious and a little grandiose for such a simple vessel.
“Well, the most famous ancient Inca god was called Kon Tiki. He was the god of storms and the seas. Legend has it that one day he walked on the ocean and never returned.”
Heyerdahl continued to tell them how years before when he was visiting Polynesia, the natives had been worshipping a god from the East called Tiki. He was convinced it was the same god. In honour of this, Thor wanted to name the raft, Kon Tiki.
The excitement was building. There was a steady hum of people busy at work on the project. A bamboo platform was installed on the top of the balsa wood and a mast was built with very strong wood. All that remained to be completed was the sails.
As the crew was installing the main sail after its completion, they all realized something was off. The sail was all white and it looked too boring and bland for an epic journey like this.
Teyus had an idea and jumped on the raft, he started working on the sail. With the help of another crew member, they painted a cartoon image of the god Kon-Tiki across the sail. It looked strong and would protect them on this adventure.