Word: zealand
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...honor was justified. Besides safely sailing 10,000 miles of ocean, Davis has accomplished these things: survived the worst gale to hit New Zealand waters in 30 years; become the first person ever to sail across the Pacific from New Zealand to Peru in mid-winter; and partly refuted or at least raised serious doubts of the validity of the Kon-Tiki theory, which at the time was called a major anthropoloical achievement...
...Davis left even before he knew he had the money. The New Zealand government gave him a non-too-generous $30 for the 10,000 mile journey; the rest of his life savings were invested in the boat. To get a crew, he placed an advertisement in New Zealand newspapers and the next day about 100 people offered to go, some even willing to pay as much at $2,000 for the opportunity. Davis finally selected Neil Arrow, a soldier-of-fortune who had spent much time at sea, and William Donovan, a ceramics student and friend of Arrow...
...record low; by morning it read 28.40 inches. Despite the black, raining sky, Davis decided to set sail, and without salute or fanfare, the Miru put to sea in the middle of the South Pacific's winter. Never before had anyone ever sailed in mid-winter from New Zealand to America along the 40th latitude--the "roaring forties." It was something that just wasn't done...
...bleary-eyed, he started to walk to the town, when he met a group of natives, all eagerly running toward the beach. He asked one what had happened. The native signaled that the French meterologist on the island had received a radio message saying that a New Zealand yacht, the Miru, had founded in a hurricane off Rapa. The French government announced that it would take one-half of any salvage from the Miru, and the island's natives would get the other half. That, he said, was why everyone was going to the beach; wreckage was sure to drift...
From the Inland Waterway, the Miru hauled out to sea, out in through the Cape Cod Canal, and five months after leaving Wellington, stood off Boston Harbor at dusk on November 2. It was night when she reached the Upper Harbor; her New Zealand flag, tattered and discolored, was unrecognizable. A dimunitive police boat greeted Miru, and escorted her to her temporary berth on the Charles...