(2015-01-05) The Expedition is eager to start the second leg of the journey and head for South America. Some final preparations still need to be made. Kon-Tiki2 Expedition leader Torgeir Higraff writes:

We are getting ready to launch. For the first time in modern history, ancient style vessels will be sailing from Polynesia to South America. On Rapa Nui (Easter Island) we have met many friendly islanders and we have made some repairs on the rafts. We specially want to thank our host Jackeline Rapu Tuki and her family for helping us with many issues, and the mayor Pedro Pablo Edmunds Paoa for providing us with fruits and vegetables from the islanders for the return leg.

In the picture, mayor Pedro Pablo Edmunds Paoa meets with Lisa and Torgeir.

Finally we got all 14 crew members for the second leg to Easter Island. The last member to join is Evgenij Orlov who took these photos. Once again I want to highlight the support we get from the hundreds of local people we meet every day and the official support from the mayor, the governor, and the Chilean Armada. We delayed our departure because of a southerly wind which is still blowing. Tomorrow we can set sail for The Roaring Forties.

The Expedition would like to thank everyone on Easter Island for being wonderful people in a wonderful place. In particular, Jackeline Rapu Tuki and her family have been fantastic!

The second leg of the Expedition will bring the rafts back to South America. The journey will be challenging as the rafts will take a more southernly route to find favorable winds and currents. The roaring 40's may soon see visitors.

During our three weeks on the island we had several gales. Now, five days at sea, we have had almost no wind and we have sailed only a few miles out from Easter Island. We can still see the volcanoes in the horizon, but now as small shadows under the big clouds. At this speed it will take us several weeks just to get to the Roaring Forties. That is where we are heading now, at the speed of "a couple in love taking a stroll pushing their babywagon in front of them". That's how Jimmy puts it. Jimmy is a 31 year old Swede who spend most of his time fishing. His experiments are good entertainment, especially when he loses his third fish into the ocean. "It is so slippery" he says laughing. I am glad these fish are were small ones he intended to use for bait. When a big dorado gets up on deck I will personally make sure it stays here. The good news is that we still have a "Happy Ship". Team Tupac has fun and does scientific tasks that are much easier to do with no wind. The three-stage sampler from NIVA works well and for the first time we can listen to the sound of 15,000 liters of seawater being pumped through the filters. We are still motivated and prepare ourselves for months at sea.

(2016-01-11) Lisa te Heuheu is a part of the Rahiti Tane crew. She is a New Zealand Māori with a passion for the environment, māori knowledge and culture and the development of all people. Together with Liv, she was recently a team member of the Access Water Ganges expedition to India. Now we are happy she's a part of our expedition! Read her blog about this new adventure called Kon-Tiki2.

Today was workout day on Tupac. Also, the two rafts met. Pedro, our engineer and oceanographer, came with the photographer Jevgeny to Tupac. Pedro fixed the AIS. Torgeir and Andrey took a swim to Rahiti and met Signe, Liv, Lisa, Sergey and Rasmus there. Meanwhile Erik harpooned a small fish that we use as bait. When the visit was over the wind changed and increased, now from southeast. Great sailing the rest of the day. We try to go east but are pushed a bit north as well.

Håkon adds, from a dry place with a fast internet connection: the wind has since shifted and is coming from south-east, which is the worst possible direction. You can follow the movements on the map on the left side of the home page.

(2016-01-12) Torgeir writes:

Many people write me and ask why I build rafts and sail them on the ocean. There are many important answers in the why section of our web page, but I also encourage those who write me to look around and see what the raft means today, in our progressive world of growth-minded states and people. The planet today is like Easter Island in the 17th and 18th century. We kill our habitat slowly and we all know what is going to happen.

The raft is the great escape people use when they are desperate, when they risk their lives to escape from something. And they number thousands, every year. They escape from wars, poverty or politics. On the other side of the ocean they find hope. Thousands of people do not know how to make their own rafts, instead they pay others to get them to the other side.

In ancient times, the rafts were also used to escape wars, poverty, or politics. After a disaster like El Nino, earthquake, vulcano eruptions or draught, rafters were able to find new land and start a new life. Today the rafters only find more politics. The Kon-Tiki2 cannot be compared to crossings in the Mediterranean, but it is a reminder that voyages in search for a better future have taken place at all times and that they go on right now. Lucky are we on these two rafts, with no fear and no bigger worries than when the wind will come. It will come.

In the pictures above you can see Sergey with a flying fish. Helpful hint: flying fish are edible. In Barbados, flying fish are eaten scaled, boned, and butterflied.

(2016-01-14) Torgeir writes:

We are still drifting westwards but celebrate that we see the 27 number again: 27 degrees south. The soups we got for Christmas from Asker are very popular, especially when mixed with fresh food from Easter Island. Erlend and Andrey take their job in the kitchen seriously. Making food is also what I enjoy every day. I think my survival instinct tells me to be near the food when I can. If the wind turns tomorrow we should see a new degree on the Jotron AIS every day.

By Lisa and Signe

(2016-01-16) We're back at sea again, with fresh supplies of vegetables, people and energy. It was hard to get hold of large quantities of any vegetable on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) seeing as they grow almost nothing themselves, it's all flown in from mainland Chile. We did get a lot of onion and garlic, some carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, pineapples and lemons. This is what we've had this first week:

• Thursday: Boiled potatoes, onions and fresh salad
• Friday: Curry with rice
• Saturday: Lentil burgers with rice
• Sunday: Chinese vegetables with rice
• Monday: Rice with vegetables in a peanut/coconut sauce
• Tuesday: Potato soup
• Wednesday: Chick peas in tomato-ginger sauce with rice

We've been baking bread every second day, and Tupac have started a bread-baking competition to see which raft can make the best bread. Not sure who the judge will be but we'll sure do our best to win the competition. Lisa is the steward on this leg, and she's doing a tremendous job of keeping track of how much we have of everything and where it is stored. We're probably going to be out here for a very long time so it's important to watch our consumption. One thing that we did get a lot of was chocolate! So, we have increased our chocolate intake: we now eat chocolate on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays as opposed to only Wednesdays and Saturdays on the first leg. First impressions are that Chilean chocolate is very good! So far we've been very happy about the food. Our Russian photographer often exclaims "delicious! Tastes like home!". Contrary to our hard efforts we have not caught any fish yet, even though there was one on the hook a few days ago but it simply took the bait and swam off. Will continue to work hard on this issue. We're now starting week two, and the food planning is well underway.

The problem is the wind. In this area the statistics say that we should have east, north east and northerly winds. We've been experiencing south, south/southeast and southeast. A high pressure system is to the southwest of us, giving us these winds. In the southern hemisphere the winds around a high pressure system blow anticlockwise, and we seem to be at "2 o'clock" in this system. All we need is for it to move east, so that we'll be at "10 o'clock" giving us wind from northeast and east. It just doesn't seem to want to move.

In a normal year this pressure system would be placed southeast of Rapa Nui, but this is clearly not a normal year. In the end, we just have to be patient. The northerly winds will come eventually. And hey, no-one ever said this was going to be easy, right? Spirits are still high, the sun is shining and the sea temperature is a comfortable 23 degrees. No complaints there.

Luego de 10 dias de navegacion, estamos practicamente en la misma latitud que la Isla de Pascua y unas 200 millas mas al oeste. Fue necesario rodear la Isla por el norte y tomar rumbo hacia el oeste en donde hay mas posibilades de encontrar los vientos que nos permitan ir hacia el sur hasta alcazar la latitud 40 S, conocida como "the roaring forties", donde predominan fuerte vientos con direccion al continente. El gobierno de las balsas es cada vez mas preciso y predecible. El mar, de un azul intenso, todavia no nos regala un buen pascado para refrescar nuestro menu, al que ya se le estan agotando los alimentos frescos. La poblacion de cangrejos ha aumentado a unos cuatro que se dejan ver mas una minuscula criatura que debe ser 100% kontikense. Paciencia y buen humor, este ultimo no ha declinado y esperamos mejores vientos.

In his text, Robert expains the winds and the currents, and the onboard raft population. Stay tuned for pictorial evidence.

The team tested the deep launch capacity of RT. The bamboo boom that holds a pulley on the port (windward) side, resisted the tension and protected the raft. Hundreds of kevlar lines were tied to together to make the deep line on the first part of the Kon-Tiki2 expedition. Each knot represented a threat to this operation in the line under high tension. The deployment was done under course, moving at approximately 2 kn, and the deep line affected the vessel's control. Line spooling was timed, as the line is not marked for length: 30min and 2 persons to send the CTD down, 4 members and one hour to retrieve the 10kg payload. the newly installed setup holds together and adds a new capacity to RT.

The gathered data shows a smoothly decreasing temperature gradient from 24 at the surface to 6 degrees Celcius at maximum depth, the location of oxygen maximum and minimum, and a peak of fluorescence at depth. The Research Vessel Rahiti Tane is equipped with sophisticated scientific instruments from NIVA and NTNU, it has an organized and capable crew on board and will continue in the path to America with its scientific program.

We started with the cabin floor. During our island layover we have reinforced the floor taking into account some of the issues we faced during the first leg of our journey. The problem is that the beam sea would sometimes cause upward splashes through floor cracks inside the cabin. Being merely unpleasant for crew members (especially at nighttime, as it means drying sleeping bags the morning after), such a shower is a disaster for naviagtion and video equipment! Our enhancements did work, but the waves are still there, so we had to repair a fragment of the floor near the command bridge. Then we focused on the rear deck, which suffered most. The waves keep hitting bamboo decking that Heikki, Heidi, Boris and I invested so much time and effort in. Some bamboo planks have split and splintered, some ropes have torn. Not looking good at all. We rescued what could be rescued and tried to prevent further bamboo desintegration. If things get any worse we will have to use a part of front deck planks for repair. The front deck is feeling much better. Additionally, we have washed our solar power units and handled the waste, including empty water bottles.

To reward ourselves for a pretty productive day, we lounged in the newly installed front deck hammock and celebrated with some delicious spaghetti, sauce and mushrooms.

Two weeks at sea, and having a great journey!

The picture shows the screen of the Jotron AIS transceiver which also doubles as a GPS, now declaring 30 degrees south!

• Thursday: Potato hashcakes with sweet 'n' sour taro snd rice, salad
• Friday: Rosti with bean stew
• Saturday: Spaghetti wit creamed mushroom sauce
• Sunday: sweet 'n' sour vegetables
• Monday: Moros con cristianos (rice and beans mexican style)
• Tuesday: Curry with rice
• Wednesday: Potatoes with mushroom stew

We bake bread every second day, and it's getting better and better. We are sure to win the breadbaking competition started by Torgeir on Tupac! As the third week starts we are in high spirits, we have passed 30 degrees south, we have more books to read and more vegetables to eat. All is good. We have finally managed to finish the bananas, even our monkey mascot Balsa is sick of bananas. These final three will become banana loaf later today.

In Erik's first picture above, you can see the diving board on Tupac Yupanqui. The second picture shows one of the local residents: a small crab has hitched a ride on the raft.

Yesterday however, we had wind speeds of about 11 m/s (5-6 beaufort) and the waves were growing bigger. High waves are not a problem per se, it depends on the wave length. As long as a wave has the time to pass before the next one arrives, the raft is just gently lifted and tilted. However, when there is a short wave coming, it breaks over the aft and if you are unlucky, some water is pressed through any hole in the floor of the hut and splashed into your face.

This was the case last night, and while I was lying in my bed, trying to be unconcerned about the occasional involuntary face washes, I came up with a possible solution. Luseplatting! (Update: "baggywrinkle" in English) It is an arrangement made out of small pieces of rope tied to a rope and it ends up looking like a elongated toilet brush; or Mark Zuckerberg's dog, I've been told. Usually it is used to protect things such as sails or gaffs from unnecessary chafing, but I thought it could do the trick as sealing compound as well.

Highly motivated, Lisa and I managed to produce about 5 m of luseplatting during the night watch, and we ended up with two fluffy things that almost looked like pets. Despite their cute appearance and look of appeal, we quickly stowed them away in a hole in the deck along the wall of the hut, where the sea previously had found its way in. It was a great success, and my two hobbies were suddenly not in conflict any more. Liv has now produced her first luseplatting, and I believe that it might soon be the latest craze aboard Rahiti Tane.

Also, we decided to improve ambience on Tupac. We probably got a little tired from the rubber boots swinging under the ceiling and from the perpetually damp towels. In a word, we felt like we needed a sprinkling of art around us. Now one of the cabin walls is serving as a gallery of children's drawings. It feels great and very touching to see a bunch of bearded guys hanging up the drawings painstakingly colored with bright markers and pencils. All the pictures are very meaningful and, most importantly, sincere. They make us think of home. The subjects are simple. But look at these rafts, tropical trees, fish and huge whales! That's exactly what they look like in children's imagination. Thanks to Paula, Sverre, Kate, and Pete for raising our spirits! These pictures are now much dearer to us than works of the most famous masters.

We have worked our way though a lot of our fresh fruit and veges and said good bye to the final bananas on Friday. As a treat I made 2 Banana Loaves for Thursday and Friday. It flooded me with memories of New Zealand, we have a cake and tea culture and I could imagine sitting in my grandmothers kitchen eating cake, drinking tea and chatting about random events at home. The smiles that the loaf put on people's faces, it felt like total luxury to be eating such a treasure.

Our fresh vege list is potatoes, onions and lemons. We are being creative and inspiring as we can when it comes to the use of these ingredients and I am continually impressed about how well we eat here on Rahiti Tane. Here is a snapshot of our dinners of the last week:

• Thursday - Papas con Chorizo
• Friday - Rice and Beans in Peanut Sauce
• Saturday - Spaghetti Bolognese
• Sunday - Spicy Aloo Stew
• Monday - Quinoa Balls with Rice and Sprouted Lentils
• Tuesday - Mexican Lentil Soup with Fries
• Wednesday - NZ Baked Beans with Smashed Potatoes

As we head into weather that is wet and damp, we have started introducing more snacks and even had an evening of Hot Chocolate and story telling. One thing we have done well on our raft, is to make sure that we have food events that we can look forward to. Chocolate on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, are a treat the crew never let me forget, but also when we hit a milestone like 30 degrees latitude we had a whole lot of snacks and popcorn to celebrate. We are looking forward to a few more events on the horizon to break out some new cuisine and tantalise our taste buds!

What is the correct way? After some good wind, we decided to take down the sail and just drift. The wind is now east/south but it's supposed to go back to northern later today. The picture of Torgeir shows how we are trying to keep a good mood by doing silly things.

Signe writes:

Sailing from 30 to 40 degrees south is a bit like playing red light green light. The area is dominated by a large high pressure system and every few days a small low pressures passes by, from west to east. This means that we have two or three days of good northwesterly wind until it all of a sudden weakens and turns to southwest, then southeast. After about 12 hours it comes back to northwest. Having vessels that sail relatively slow and can't beat very close to the wind our tactics so far have been to lower the sail whenever we're no longer able to sail towards the south, and wait. The idea is that we will not drift as far north as we would have sailed north with this wind. As soon as the wind turn back in our favour we hoist the sail and sail as fast and far as we can before the next round of southerly winds. Both rafts lowered their sail last night, and hopefully the wind will turn during the day today. Meanwhile we patiently wait.

The second picture shows Lisa playing the guitar.

The temperature in abyssal depths drops to 2 degrees in the Celcius scale. Three and a half hours of footage were recorded during the cast by the spherical glass-housed Deepbot. Equipped with two intense led strobes, the deepbot brought to the surface visual evidence of plankton, marine snow and possibly macrofauna, which can be situated with its depth and water physical properties: oxygen, fluorescence, and salinity. A shiny sea surface around the raft, illuminated by the strobes in the middle of an overcast dark night, was a rewarding landscape for the crew indicating the near conclusion of the operation. Both instruments are ready for the next dive. The following morning allowed the overexcercised crew to rest through a pleasant morning, and a harmonius sunrise with a delightfully calm sea.

The picture is a courtesy by our photographer Orlov. The crew gathers around the instruments to celebrate an exciting and demanding activity on board.

[Håkon adds, from a dry place on land: congratulations to Pedro and the Rahiti crew! You have achieved something truly remarkable in the history of oceanography. You beat our previous record of 2046 metres, and you did so with a huge payload, in the dark! The knots on the rope are unfortunate artefacts stemming from the kevlar spaghetti, but I'm happy that the triple fishermen we tied are holding up. Remember, there's a video projector on Tupaq Yapanqi which can project the deep-water footage on the mainsail!]