Kon-Tiki revisited

An Oak Cliff resident sailed the Humboldt Current for 47 days

Story by rachel Stone | Portrait by Kim ritzenthaler Leeson

Eight people, one reed boat with cotton sails and no engine, 2,500 miles. That’s how Greg Dobbs got to Easter Island.

He and seven other people sailed from the coast of Chile to Easter Island on a boat made of reeds harvested from Lake Titicaca. Their vessel, Veracocha, is the only reed boat to make that journey in modern times.

“At the turn of the millennium, I went down to Chile to meet a friend of mine who had been in Costa Rica,” says Dobbs, who lives in Oak Cliff and owns J.D. Tree Service.

The friend’s childhood hero was Thor Heyerdahl, the legendary Norwegian adventurer who in 1947 sailed a balsa raft named Kon-

Tiki 4,300 miles from Peru to French Polynesia.

Dobbs’ friend was preparing for the reed boat-trip, and he invited Dobbs along. Their journey would be challenging at times, but in hindsight, Dobbs says, they were lucky to arrive at Easter Island after only 47 days at sea.

They set sail Feb. 25, 2000, and they sailed the Humboldt Current to test Heyerdahl’s theory that ancient migration to Polynesia could’ve come from the West and not just from Asia.

“It was a very beautiful experience, getting out there and seeing the blue, blue water and the stars,” Dobbs says. “We saw a lunar eclipse, which we didn’t even know what was happening.”

Their supply of fruits and vegetables ran out after a few weeks, but they had plenty of water and staples such as rice. The hull of their 70-foot ship attracted fish to its shade. So whenever they wanted meat, they could drop down and reel in tuna and mahi mahi from the ocean.

The boat had no running lights, and they had a few close calls with freighters in the night. Once, the wind died and the boat lulled for nearly four days, drifting in the middle of the ocean with no land in sight.

The captain, who became a celebrity in Chile because of this mission, called in daily reports to the media.

“We just read and fished and took turns at the tiller and mapped our way,” Dobbs says.

Dobbs says he felt a surge of emotion when Easter Island finally came into view. Upon their arrival, the locals treated the