Kon-Tiki2 days at sea due to difficult weather conditions. By then, the rafts had sailed halfway to South America. All crew members were taken aboard a Japanese freighter, and later transported to shore by the Chilean Armada. Expedition leader Torgeir Higraff chose to terminate the expedition to avoid risking the life of crew members. The expedition built and sailed two balsawood rafts: "Rahiti Tane" and "Tupac Yupanqui". The rafts were similar to the "Kon-Tiki" raft built by Thor Heyerdahl in 1947. Like the "Kon-Tiki", "Rahiti Tane" and "Tupac Yupanqui" were built from balsawood transported from Ecuador to SIMA, the Peruvian Army's
Herman Watzinger which was cancelled because of World War II, and applied for a job in the U.S and sought a visa to the U.S. He met Thor Heyerdahl in New York City, where he was asked to participate in the construction of the Kon-Tiki raft and become a member of the expedition. On board the raft, where he was second in command, he was responsible for meteorological and hydrographic measurements. After the Kon-Tiki expedition, he returned to Lima in 1970, where he worked as head of fisheries, projects and advisor in freezing techniques for WR Grace & Co and Atlas. Watzinger