(TheOceans.net) The Abora III experiment finished 550 miles away from the Azores; days after the sailors had attempted to patch the boat out at sea. Last Wednesday, the crew dismantled the boat, and boarded a sailboat originally chartered to bring a ZDF camera crew to film the ABORA III.The battered experiment
Storms, breakage, speed and time all were issues virtually from day one onboard the prehistoric-style boat made of reeds - leading to food rationing, collecting rain water and fishing attempts.
Six hundred miles west of the Azores, Dominique Görlitz and crew tried to rebuild their vessel after being battered by two heavy storms "The sailors feel confident that the ship will neither sink nor disintegrate further," the expedition website reported.
The storm caused a good deal of damage to the portside rudder and broke the stern end of the vessel off in its entirety. The multi-national crew stabilized the situation by tightening the spiral-ropes that held the reed-rolls together.
Designs for a new rudder and a different trim of the mast, both based on ancient Egyptian rock drawings, were made in hopes that these modifications would allow a continuation of the journey to the Azores. The ship sailed for a few days afterwards, but was finally abandoned at the arrival of the filmcrew.
Gorlitz and his crew left port in New York CityJuly 11, bound for Spain in the ABORA III, a boat made from reeds harvested at Lake Titicaca in Bolivia.
Gorlitz's ten-person crew ranged in age from 23 to 63, and had members hailing from Germany, France, Norway, Cuba and the U.S. The team boasted various impressive backgrounds, including the trained botanist, former CEO, scientific scuba diver and Everest skier Tormod Granheim.
The ABORA III prehistoric reed boat was skippered by experimental archaeologist and botanist Dominique Görlitz. Based on the expedition, Görlitz was investigating the need to re-write naval history for his Ph.D. at the University of Bonn in Germany. His thesis is that intercontinental journeys happened thousands of years before both Columbus and the Vikings, and an Abora IV is now in the planning.
Gorlitz posits that regular trade was being conducted between the Old and New worlds, pointing to evidence such as the discorvery of the same cultivated plants on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as traces of nicotine and cocaine (substances that had only become popular after Columbus returned to the Old World) found in the mummy of Ramses II in Egypt.
"The most remarkable example of this originates from the 'Cueva del Castillo' in northern Spain, dating back to 12,000 BCE," he said. "It refers to the Canary Islands Gulf Stream System, a downwind course - much easier than sailing in the windy Mediterranean. Even the types of stylized boats used to cross the Atlantic from East to West with the North Equatorial Current, as well as from West to East on the Gulf Stream, are clearly depicted. The dotted circles on the left most likely refer to the Caribbean Current, from which the Gulf Stream rises."
In the example of Sir Ernest Shakelton, Abora Team Leader Dominique Goerlitz decided in the face of massive hurricanes, and after already having lost part of the reed boat in a previous storm, that he would abandon ship putting the safety of his team ahead of the glory of the expedition. TEam member Sabrina Lorenz is carrying the Wings Flag. Yesterday a documentary film crew deployed from the Azores traveled four days, 500 miles to film the Abora's last three weeks of her journey. With three massive new storms about ready to pound the now 30-foot vessel, Dominique ordered his team to board the film team's vessel and head for the Azores. We at Wings are proud of the team and of Dominique for not being suicidally macho.
