TAI KI: To the Point of No Return

A stirring sea-adventure with an affecting climax, soon to be released as a documentary film. Kuno KnÖbl noted the similarity of designs on some Asian and Central American stone carvings (he was not the first), and decided to build a Chinese junk modeled after junks of 2000 years ago and sail it from Hong Kong to Yucatan to show that Asians quite likely once made the same trip. He gathered a crew of seven rather young adventurers--and the tight Tai Ki built--embarked into the windy North Pacific in June 1974. Windy indeed!--the ship rode out 13 typhoons. Still more staggering to their hopes was a relentless eruption of borer worms that turned the hull into a sieve and kept the crew pumping maniacally just to stay afloat. In the end they were rescued after a great hole appeared below the water-line--and Tai Ki drifted away unmanned but not unremembered.