PACIFIC FIRE

CAUGHT IN A WALL OF LIGHTNING IN A TRADITIONAL SAILING CANOE, THOR F JENSEN'S BID TO SAIL AROUND NEW GUINEA IS IN JEOPARDY

When Thor F Jensen’s book, Saltwater and Spear Tips, arrived on my desk I was immediately fascinated by the subtitle, which reads: ‘The world’s first circumnavigation of the island of New Guinea in a traditional sailing canoe’. That’s not the sort of story you come across every day, so I opened the book and delved in to discover that this is a whole lot more than just a sailing epic. It’s an adventure of the highest order. The boat herself, Tawali Pasana, is very much the real thing. She consists of an open, impossibly narrow hull, supported by two outriggers, built very much in the vernacular fashion to operate under sail and oar.

At the outset, Thor is no expert at sailing such craft, so his local crew are very much part of the action. Their expertise keeps the show on the road in the face of some awful weather and the daunting prospect of over 3,000 miles in tropical, often uncharted, waters. Visit sailaufilm.​com and you get to see what the boat and her people actually look like, and pick up all manner of in-depth information about the voyage. Right now we’re going sailing with them. They’re off the North coast of New Guinea, night is coming on and the prognosis is anything but promising...

Things never go as you expect on this voyage. Around 9pm the wind turned back to the south-east. This was what we wanted. “To hell with Yapen,” I thought aloud. I took a new bearing and we started running in a northwesterly direction towards Runi Island and its larger neighbour Wamsoi. The moon was increasing in shape and lit up the entire canoe; the wind was sweet and we covered good miles.

An hour later, Sanakoli had to throw his towel into the ring. “We take down sail and sleep.” I couldn’t blame him. He’d been steering almost all day and night, but we couldn’t rest now. We were still 30 miles from our goal.