Customer Reviews

8 Men and a Duck : An Improbable Voyage by Reed Boat to Easter Island

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Great story about a bunch of guys with who sail a reed boat from Chile to Easter Island. The journey reminds me of Tania Aebi's "Maiden Voyage" in both how generally clueless the crew is (few have ever been on a sailboat), and the tone of the story. Ostensibly the trip is about whether Easter Island could have been populated from South America, but the book really is about how 8 men (and a duck) interact with each other and themselves in a small hole in the water in the middle of the ocean. Everybody's character is exposed (the author is the neurotic) as they face 2000 miles of the Pacific over 2 months. Extremely entetaining with an excellent wit. I highly recommend it.

A couple of years ago, Buck determined to make the real voyage from Peru to Easter Island on an ancient style of reed boat, a voyage Thor Heyerdahl had contemplated but not accomplished. And, as the boat was built and the crew shifted, he happened to have one opening for an extra crewman. He was very lucky that Nick Thorpe, a Scottish travel writer, happened by chance to hear about the voyage while going through South America, for Thorpe became the expedition's chronicler, in _8 Men and a Duck: An Improbable Voyage by Reed Boat to Easter Island_ (Free Press). Thorpe inflated his novice sailing history in order to get the job, but in his funny tale, his ineptitude is about equivalent of that of his companions. Among them were a French Lothario, a Chilean master-of-none, and a Texas tree surgeon. Of course this was a "ship of fools;" Thorpe himself uses the phrase, but it is an engaging brand of foolishness. For this "oddest bunch of misfits ever to set foot on the high seas," it would not be a laughing matter if they had all drowned, and they did come close, but danger related here only heightens the humor.

Thorpe's account is full of things that did go wrong, many of which were not at all funny at the time. There were the trials of getting the twenty-ton ship to the ocean, and how she was stuck on her launching ramp for five days. When Thorpe's sails were finally raised, they were backwards. The electronic navigation and weather system did not work ("So far we would have been better holding a straw in the wind and guessing"). There is a shameful "Power Bar scandal - a chilling indictment of human behavior in an unregulated economy of confectionary snacks." A crew member snores "like the death rattle of a walrus." Of course there is a storm that is frightful to read about, and then just as frustrating, a time at the end when the opposite dread of sailors, a windless ocean, becalms the _Viracocha_. There are sharks. Throughout the book, the strangers on board do manage to become a sufficiently competent crew, and learn some valuable nautical lessons about depending on one's team.

Of course, there isn't much history here; ethnographers will not be readjusting their estimation of Pacific history based on this crew's voyage. There simply isn't much reason to have accomplished this feat (although after it is all over, Thorpe and the captain do manage a reverential visit to Thor Heyerdahl, who died two months before the book came out). Phil Buck has written an appendix here on how to build a reed boat, but readers will not be inspired to emulation. Buck had wanted to make such a trip ever since he was a kid, and whatever meaning there is in the attempt must be simply in the accomplishment of the task. That, and this resultant chronicle, a happy account of a mad voyage.

A fun and exciting read! - the only expedition book I have ever been able to relate to! In all of the previous "expedition" books I have read, none have been so thoroughly humerous, dramtic and openly candid. In a magnificent triumph over the typical mauncho-driven accounts of glacier-crossing, sahara-crawls or other adventure-expedition books, the author captures the human side of doing something no one has dared or been able to do before. This book truly reminds the reader that we all have desires for adventure, and that we are all capable, even in the light of our own fears and incapabilities, to be an explorer. I loved the honesty, the humor, the drama and of course the storm and sharks! If you want to live a personal, real-life adventure, experienced within the space of humbling honesty - then read this book!

The shadow of the more nobly conceived and executed "Kon-Tiki" hangs over this book, although "8 Men and a Duck" still offers a vicarious opportunity for thrilling and exotic adventure. Many things inevitably go wrong on such a voyage, but this group of fellows were so unprepared, both technically and emotionally, that it was almost a surprise when anything went right. Their ineptitude is somewhat frustrating to read about. Don't they make them like Thor Hyerdahl any more?

I first previewed this book in an online book club, and the writing and the topic immediately caught my attention. Mr. Thorpe writes with exquisite talent. His style is informative, humorous and very introspective at the same time. The book follows an adventurous group of 8 men who take a reed boat into the Pacific so they can sail it to Easter Island. What really impressed aside from great storytelling, is that way the author draws the portraits of himself and his crewmates.
It's a great book to pick up for a weekend read; I read it in two sittings. :-)

It's an old adage that it's not the destination that matters, but the journey. This much is a cliché, but this much is true, and Nick Thorpe's fabulous, vastly entertaining and thoughtful book `Eight Men and a Duck' is all the proof you need. Thorpe is an English journalist, who while on one of those too good to be true writing gigs when a newspaper paid him to bum around South America happened upon a tall tale about a reed boat about to leave Chile for Easter Island.

So the journalist's mind kicked in - let's investigate. Soon, without planning it, Thorpe found himself becoming more than just an observer, as a place on this incredible journey fell into his lap. Some discussion with his wife (you know, `I love you, I might never see you again, is that ok?') later, and the - let's say `unswarthy' Englishman (look at the photos in the book) was off to sea with a rogue's gallery of shipmates straight out of Captain Pugwash. The book takes us on the journey with them, in the race against time they created for themselves by building a boat out of reeds that will eventually sink. It's a journey that involves the Chilean Navy, good and bad weather, esoteric Frenchmen, weird food, and the very nature of friendship itself.

This is not just a book about the technicalities of ancient sea-travel (though there's enough of that to interest even the most hardy of land-locked readers), or the existential joys and angst of a dangerous and beautiful journey, but a tremendously rich sketch of what men are like when they get together. If you've ever wanted to take a risk, but feel seasick at the thought, then you may just love this book. Witty, self-deprecating, but alive with a thirst for the journey, Thorpe's writing is among the most engaging prose I've ever encountered. He has the wit of Bill Bryson and the eye for detail that Paul Theroux must pride himself on, but the voice is all his own. For duck-lovers, misty-eyed seafarers, religiously sceptic mystics, child-like wanderers and anyone who's ever gone travelling to `find themselves', `Eight Men and a Duck' is a joy from start to finish.

This book is an interesting story of men confronting and overcoming difficulties. Each faced with inner conflicts and all facing real danger.
Having read hundreds of travel adventure books, the prose of this book stands high above others. Nick Thorpe is a talented wordsmith that has taken and adventure and made it a pleasure to read not only for the subject matter but the style of writing. The book is absent of flowery language others use attempting to achieve what Thorpe has done so naturally. I've rated this book high in my collection.

While the start of the book is a dash slow being focused on the building of the actual craft and pulling a crew together, it soon picks up and races across the Pacific. The author has an incredible sense for wording which oft makes this non-fiction read like pure poetry. If only we all could be so eloquent, english would then remain a beautiful language.

The book is pleasantly lacking an overload of technical know-how and expertise as so many adventure books can be. Rather than bog the reader down with intricate details, the author keeps the story alive and fresh with emotions ranging from the struggle against the elements while being entirely out of his own element to the intricacies of life aboard a small vessel for two months with complete strangers who don't always mix well but eventually bond enough as a cohesive family and team to survive.

It becomes entertaining after the first two chapters but is inspiring throughout. This book offers evidence to what can be done when one has a dream no matter how silly the dream or how high the obstacles loom. A great account of a fantastic adventure that not many would dare to take or be able to pull off.

A chance remark, and Nick Thorpe bluffs his way onto an expedition to support Thor Heyerdahl's theory that Easter Island was originally colonised by Amerindians prior to the wave of Polynesians.
When he discovers that the crew has no navigator and minimal sailing experience, he is intrigued rather than disillusioned and he throws himself wholeheartedly into the project. The same cannot be said of other members, or the organiser, who couldn't organise a binge in a brewery.
Accusations of cheating from a rival deflate morale so much, they are in danger of missing the favourable winds. The vitriolic attack also undermines his support and funding and endangers the credibility of the whole exercise.

Thankfully, all obstacles are overcome, so there is only the voyage to complete. This is almost a shambles, due to the lackadaisical captain and the gung-ho exploits of some of the crew. Boredom, superstition and deep-seated prejudices provide fuel for some 'interesting' episodes.
The book is more about relationships and experiences than anthropological archaeology, unlike the books by Severin & Heyerdahl, but if you accept this limitation, the result is a rollicking good tale. The humour is low-key and understated, but there is very little technical information; however a couple of appendices partly address that quibble.
All in all, a good read.****