Ocean Cruising in Dugout Canoes

The Pacific Ocean covers half of the world and was populated from Hawaii to New Zealand by the time of Christ. The Polynesians used dugout canoes. How did the Pacific Ocean become populated 1,500 years before Columbus? As an adventure, my theory is that some islands were populated by sailors who ventured out on exploring voyages, other islands were populated by lost sailors.

The story, Mutiny on the Bounty, is a well documented disaster that started a new race and language on Pitcairn Island. Disasters like this could have happened hundreds of times over thousands of years until the Pacific and America’s became populated. As the population grew, navigation and boat building skills were learned. Round trip voyages of ever increasing distance were taken. The people were adventures who wanted new travel experiences.

Cruising in Dugout Canoes Today

In the Tropic Zones of the world, the dugout canoe is the most popular form of water transportation. With and ax and adz, one man can fall a tree, carve a hull in a few days. Add outrigger and sail, that person will have transportation built from the jungle that cost him nothing. In the Tropics, this form of transportation has been standard through all of history.

Today, dugout canoeing is a lost art to the industrial world. But, people still sail hundreds and thousands of miles of open ocean in them. Most passages are not documented because people are looking for an economical way to travel from island "A" to island "B." When built and handled right, dugout canoes are extremely strong and can be a very safe boat for ocean cruising.

• In the 1890’s, a man sailed from Seattle Washington to the South Pacific in a dugout canoe.
• In the 1950’s a man sailed a dugout down the Amazon River, then across the Caribbean to Panama.
• In 1970 I sailed a 36 foot dugout "Liki Tiki Too" 5,000 miles from Panama to Hawaii.
• In 1989, an Argentine man sailed and open 18-foot dugout 10,000 miles from Panama to the Philippines. He used a length of string for navigation.
• In 1991, five men sailed an open outrigger canoe 400 miles from Palau Islands to Guam without compass or sextant.

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