with two balsa rafts Rahiti Tane and Tupac Yupanqui left Lima, Peru for Easter Island. Expedition Kon-Tiki2 got its name because it had 2 crews from many nations: Norway, Russia, UK, Mexico, New Zealand, Sweden, and Peru. It sought to double down on Heyerdahl's voyage by sailing two rafts from South America to Polynesia and then back. Expedition leader was Torgeir Higraff from Tangaroa Expedition (2006). Øyvin Lauten and Kari Skår Dahl were captains on the first leg, while Signe Meling and Ola Borgfjord were captains on the second leg. The raft reached Easter Island, but did not complete the return. The two rafts were made of 11 balsa logs and 10 crossbeams held together by 2000 meters (1¼ miles) of natural fiber ropes. Tens of thousands of waves, up to six meters (20') tall, hit the rafts in an El Niño year. This stress for 16 weeks weakened the ropes, but the crew could not replace all of them. On March 3, 2016, all crew members were taken on board the Hokuetsu Ushaka freight ship after 115 days of sailing and 4½ months at sea. Documentation Memoir book A book documenting the voyage and raft was released in 1948 by Thor Heyerdahl, called The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas. Documentary film A film documentary about the voyage and raft was released in 1950, called Kon-Tiki. It won the 1951 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. In popular culture Kon-Tiki is a 2012 Norwegian historical dramatized feature film about the 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition. It starred Pål Sverre Valheim Hagen as Thor Heyerdahl and was directed by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg. It was the highest-grossing film of 2012 in Norway and the country's most expensive production to date. Episode 5 of the tenth season of HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm features Clive Owen as himself in a one-man play entitled "Kon Tiki". Episode 2 of the second season of Apple TV+'s For All Mankind mentions a Space Shuttle named Kon-Tiki. Cotton Mather's 1997 album Kontiki is named for the Kon-Tiki expedition. See also Experimental archaeology Polynesian navigation Pre-Columbian transoceanic contact theories Pre-Columbian rafts Chincha culture Hyperdiffusionism Tupac Inca Yupanqui Atlantis Expedition References Bibliography Heyerdahl, Thor; Lyon, F.H. (translator) (1950). Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific by Raft. Rand McNally & Company, Chicago, Ill. Hesselberg, Erik (1950). Kon-Tiki and I : illustrations with text, begun on the Pacific on board the raft