Anthony Smith (explorer) - Crossing The Atlantic By Raft

Crossing The Atlantic By Raft

On 30 January 2011, Smith and a crew of three volunteers departed from La Gomera in the Canary Islands in a custom-built raft, with the intention of crossing the Atlantic Ocean within three months, eventually arriving in Eleuthera. The raft, which was given the name An-Tiki in reference to the Kon-Tiki raft used by Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl in his 1947 expedition from South America to the Polynesian islands, was assembled during November and December 2010. Its superstructure consists of a small hut within which the crew share two bunks, while the hull was fashioned from plastic gas pipes which carried either supplies for ballast or air for buoyancy. Its facilities were designed to be modest and it was equipped with a gas stove for cooking and telegraph poles which would act as masts, as well as solar panels, a wind generator and a foot pump which would power its electronic devices, as the crew plan to use computers and digital cameras to communicate with the outside world and document their journey. According to an article Smith wrote for the Daily Telegraph, in its final form the An-tiki measured approximately 40 feet by 18 feet. Its hut is approximately 20 feet by 7 feet.

Smith had been interested in crossing the Atlantic by raft as far back as 1952, when he devised a plan to begin somewhere in the Canary Islands and to rely on fresh fish as his source of food. "I was a student then and I ran out of money." He told the Telegraph. "But the idea has always niggled me." The voyage began as a concise advert listed in the Telegraph in 2006, which simply read "Fancy rafting across the Atlantic? Famous traveller requires 3 crew. Must be OAP. Serious adventurers only." From his applications, Smith recruited Robin Batchelor, also a professional balloonist,to help design and build the raft. AnTiki's crew consisted of David Hildred, a yacht master and civil engineer,and two experienced seamen Andy Bainbridge and John Russell. The crew set sail with the intention of raising money for the clean water charity WaterAid and completed their journey successfully on the island of St. Maarten in the Caribbean. Smith then recruited another crew to join him on the final leg of the voyage to Eleuthera - Alison Porteous, Bruno Sellmer, Nigel Gallaher and Leigh Rooney. They departed St. Maarten on 6 April 2012 and 24 days later were washed up on the island of Eleuthera in a storm. The fact that it was the very same beach that the Jolly Boat landed on is nothing short of miraculous. (STORY)