archives (c. 1970) In the late 1980s, a seafaring journey of over in open outrigger ‘jukung’ canoes was undertaken by nine crews, who sailed from
Bali to
Darwin across the
Timor Sea. Crews were from New Zealand (Christina Campbell, Simon Kerslake), Australia (Rory McGuiness & Rebecca Scott), USA (Mark Levinson, Katherine Connors), England (Neil Turner, Jo Dadd), Japan (Tacou Ueno & Yoko), France (Jean-Pierre & Poucinette), Germany (Miriam & Peter), The Netherlands(Ine Bolsen & Wim Driessen), and Indonesia. The three-month expedition was masterminded by Bob Hobman, filmed and made into a documentary called "Passage out of Paradise", produced by Orana films "The Great Jukung Race 1988". It was featured by the
National Geographic Society as "The Great Jukung Race". It was the first expedition of this kind, following purported Austronesian sailing routes in craft dating 7,000 years old. The expedition started in Bali, where once crews were familiar with sailing their jukungs they embarked on a two-month adventure following the ancient sailing routes used around 1,000 years BC, along the eastern Islands via
Komodo Island. They completed the journey with a treacherous 5-day sail across the
Arafura Sea to Darwin, via the
Tiwi Islands. Challenges experienced were storms requiring numerous boat repairs, waterspouts, excessive exposure to sun, heat, or rain, adverse currents, and whirlpools. Hazards included near drifting onto war-torn
Timor, unpredictable behaviour/welcome from remote villagers, salt water boils, wound infections, malnutrition, near misses with night-time freighters, and sightings of sperm whales and giant white sharks. Some sailors were attacked by a swarm of hornets while preparing to leave a remote beach camp. The crews ultimately rebelled & unanimously decided to sail as a group, as opposed to racing the final leg of the journey, for safety reasons. They avoided the risk of contact with salt water crocodiles and lethal box jellyfish, common in the Northern Territory coastal waters. All sailors survived a cyclone of more than winds in their tiny long, wide primitive bamboo/rope jukungs, although the Australian crew were lost for two days; they were later located by the Australian coast guard, with a smashed jukung washed up on an island. The fleet of nine jukungs and 18 international sailors were given a traditional welcome by local Melville Island Aborigines, and successfully reached their final destination of Darwin, Australia. == See also ==