Page 332 - The Tigris Expedition

The Tigris Expedition
He marvelled at the fact that Tigris was just as perfect and undam­
aged as the day he had seen us pass on the river, and he waved us off
to fly straight back to London with the comforting news of what he
had seen. Three days later, on the day we got the crazy news about
our trying to reverse Kon-Tiki's voyage, we received a panicky
question over Bahrain radio from another office of our same
London consortium: ‘Why had Tigris broken its back?’
We all asked Norman to shut down his radio. We had to take it as
a joke. If our shore-based contacts could not communicate across a
corridor, how could we help across the oceans?
That day Tigris had been afloat for three months. The cigar­
shaped twin bundles curved as much below as above water and still
floated higher than Ra II did after three weeks. None of us now had
any fear of Tigris losing buoyancy quickly. None of the crew had
wanted to give up in Pakistan, although they could have had air
1 destination. Everyone knew that the risk of running into a storm
tickets home, and although we were to leave Asia with an unknown
was overwhelming, and there was a chance of a cyclone. Nobody
feared that the bundle-body might be ripped apart by wind or
waves. It would take something like a steel hull or coastal cliff to
destroy the springy, yielding bundles.
The air had turned misty. There were rain showers during the
i day and new thick clouds were building up around us. It was warm
and oppressive. That day I wrote in my diary:

Watch set back again one hour at noon. As I lie on my mattress I
can sec the dancing ocean on both sides of the ship simultane­
ously through the two door-openings; when it rolls like these
days I see the water rise up above the door and above the cabin
roof on one side while it disappears under the deck on the other,
and vice versa. I cannot remember that we had so much rolling on
the two Ra's, but then we always sailed along with the elements
and not across them; now we steer for given destinations or to
avoid dangerous coasts or shipping lanes. Where do we sail now?
Nobody knows. Madagascar, the Red Sea, or any African coast
in between seem most likely and most tempting.

Around the deck table we began to discuss our future course.
Norman had just finished reading a book about a yachtsman who
spared no phrases when it came to describe the horrors of the Red
Sea, and he strongly advocated that we set course for the Seychelles,
described as a modern island paradise. Yuri, on the other hand, had
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