Jukung

[1] In the late 1980s there was a seafaring journey of over 1,900 km (1,000 NM) in open outrigger ‘jukung’ canoes by nine crews, who sailed from Bali to Darwin across the Timor Sea.

This was a three-month expedition masterminded by Bob Hobmann, filmed and made into a documentary called "Passage out of Paradise"; it was featured by the National Geographic Society as "The Great Jukung Race".

Challenges experienced were storms requiring numerous boat repairs, waterspouts, excessive exposure to sun, heat, or rain, adverse currents & whirlpools.

Hazards included drifting onto war-torn Timor, unpredictable behaviour/welcome from remote villagers, salt water boils, wound infections, malnutrition, near misses with night-time freighters, sightings of sperm whales and giant white sharks.

The fleet of 9 jukungs and 18 international sailors were given a traditional welcome by local Melville Island Aborigines, and successfully reached their final destination of Darwin, Australia.