8 Men and a Duck: An Improbable Voyage by Reed Boat to Easter Island

Even with the wind on our side and all eight of us pulling, we had never yet managed to change the complex sails....Now we had to pull against the full force of the wind, in a storm, in the middle of the night....

So begins Nick Thorpe's unlikely journey to sail 2,500 miles from northern Chile to Easter Island on the Viracocha — a boat made of reeds. Captain Phil Buck's desire to test the waters in this pre-Incan boat was twofold: to reopen the controversial migration theories of Thor Heyerdahl, who sailed his boat the Kon-Tiki from Peru to Polynesia in 1947, and to have one heck of a time in the process. With a crew that includes a tree surgeon, a jewelry salesman, and two ducks, Thorpe embarks on an unnerving Pacific voyage that is by turns fierce and farce: from the bungled phone call that triggered a naval rescue alert to the constant race against the inexorable sinking of the soggy hull. A story of high tides and even higher stakes, 8 Men and a Duck is a tale of friendship, fate, and the unlikely distances people will travel for true adventure.

Even with the wind on our side and all eight of us pulling, we had never yet managed to change the complex sails....Now we had to pull against the full force of the wind, in a storm, in the middle of the night....

So begins Nick Thorpe's unlikely journey to sail 2,500 miles from northern Chile to Easter Island on the Viracocha — a boat made of reeds. Captain Phil Buck's desire to test the waters in this pre-Incan boat was twofold: to reopen the controversial migration theories of Thor Heyerdahl, who sailed his boat the Kon-Tiki from Peru to Polynesia in 1947, and to have one heck of a time in the process. With a crew that includes a tree surgeon, a jewelry salesman, and two ducks, Thorpe embarks on an unnerving Pacific voyage that is by turns fierce and farce: from the bungled phone call that triggered a naval rescue alert to the constant race against the inexorable sinking of the soggy hull. A story of high tides and even higher stakes, 8 Men and a Duck is a tale of friendship, fate, and the unlikely distances people will travel for true adventure.

An award-winning travel and feature writer, Nick Thorpe began his career as a reporter on the Edinburgh Evening News and Scotsman newspapers and has since worked for The Times (London), The Guardian, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, and a range of other media, including the BBC World Service. He has covered Russian presidential elections, and reported on travels in Zanzibar, the Amazon, and Oman, among many other major stories. He has won Travel Story of the Year Award from the Foreign Press Association, the British Telecom Feature Writer of the Year award, and the Travelex Travel Writing Award. He lives in Edinburgh with his wife, Ali.