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Of course it's realistic. The Malagasy people are descendants of Polynesians who crossed the Indian Ocean to Madagascar, in canoes. With calm seas, there's no r

Of course it's realistic. The Malagasy people are descendants of Polynesians who crossed the Indian Ocean to Madagascar, in canoes. With calm seas, there's no reason you couldn't make such a trip. Canoes can have sails too, and you can row your way out of the doldrums.

jbattle 10y ago
There's a big difference between coastwise travel in the Indian ocean and crossing the middle of the south atlantic. Even the big portuguese ships couldn't round the cape of good hope til what - the mid 1500's?. Also it's ~5200 miles from Madagascar to South America.
- oinksoft 10y ago
  Mali is on the west coast of Africa, so such an ocean crossing would not require rounding the Cape. They're also well-situated to take advantage of trade winds, and are at the point of the narrowest middle Atlantic crossing. So it's not so far-fetched that they could have made these trips.
- jcranmer 10y ago
  The Polynesians managed to sail and colonize Hawaii at least as early as 1000, as well as colonizing places like Rapa Nui or New Zealand from a starting point of Fiji (and themselves descended from the Melanesians who started from Indonesia). They also probably managed to make it to South America and back, given their use of the South American sweet potato as a major staple. Hawaii, it should be noted, is a clear contender for "most remote place on the planet", given the lack of even small islands outside of the Hawaiian island channels for thousands of miles.
tremon 10y ago
But the route from Polynesia to Madagascar can be traveled along the shoreline of Asia and Africa, so can be completed without navigational aides. The crossing from Africa to South America is 3000 km of nothing but ocean.
- oinksoft 10y ago
  According to their oral history, they went clear across the ocean. My source is "A History of Madagascar" by Mervyn Brown (2001) and it could be incorrect, I didn't seek out the primary sources.
- HeyLaughingBoy 10y ago
  There is documentation that the pacific islanders crossed thousands of miles of ocean successfully on a fairly routine basis.
- badocr 10y ago
  Amyr Klink crossed the Atlantic in a rowing boat from Namibia to the north coast of Brazil in 1984, it took him around 100 days [1]. He seems to remain the only one to have accomplished such a feat. Very little information in english seems to be avaiable though. The boat can be seems in the background of this video [2] (in portuguese). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amyr_Klink https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amyr_Klink [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rz5zWCpIKT0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rz5zWCpIKT0

jbattle 10y ago

There's a big difference between coastwise travel in the Indian ocean and crossing the middle of the south atlantic. Even the big portuguese ships couldn't round the cape of good hope til what - the mid 1500's?. Also it's ~5200 miles from Madagascar to South America.

oinksoft 10y ago
Mali is on the west coast of Africa, so such an ocean crossing would not require rounding the Cape. They're also well-situated to take advantage of trade winds, and are at the point of the narrowest middle Atlantic crossing. So it's not so far-fetched that they could have made these trips.
jcranmer 10y ago
The Polynesians managed to sail and colonize Hawaii at least as early as 1000, as well as colonizing places like Rapa Nui or New Zealand from a starting point of Fiji (and themselves descended from the Melanesians who started from Indonesia). They also probably managed to make it to South America and back, given their use of the South American sweet potato as a major staple. Hawaii, it should be noted, is a clear contender for "most remote place on the planet", given the lack of even small islands outside of the Hawaiian island channels for thousands of miles.

tremon 10y ago

But the route from Polynesia to Madagascar can be traveled along the shoreline of Asia and Africa, so can be completed without navigational aides. The crossing from Africa to South America is 3000 km of nothing but ocean.

oinksoft 10y ago
According to their oral history, they went clear across the ocean. My source is "A History of Madagascar" by Mervyn Brown (2001) and it could be incorrect, I didn't seek out the primary sources.
HeyLaughingBoy 10y ago
There is documentation that the pacific islanders crossed thousands of miles of ocean successfully on a fairly routine basis.
badocr 10y ago
Amyr Klink crossed the Atlantic in a rowing boat from Namibia to the north coast of Brazil in 1984, it took him around 100 days [1]. He seems to remain the only one to have accomplished such a feat. Very little information in english seems to be avaiable though. The boat can be seems in the background of this video [2] (in portuguese). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amyr_Klink https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amyr_Klink [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rz5zWCpIKT0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rz5zWCpIKT0