page_title: Vital Alsar Pacific raft expeditions
section_title: Crew
hierarchical_section_title: Vital Alsar Pacific raft expeditions / Las Balsas / Crew
caption_attribution_description: English: The 1973 Las Balsas expedition: Surviving (composite) raft exhibited at the Ballina Maritime Museum, in Ballina, New South Wales, Australia. The Las Balsas expedition is first-known multiple-raft crossing of the Pacific Ocean in recent history, and the longest-known raft voyage in history. The 3 original rafts were replicas of Pre-Columbian Ecuadorian style balsa wood vessels. The raft was salvaged and reconstructed from the remains of the two rafts that beached at Ballina following their expedition across the Pacific. The third raft drifted further south once the crew were recovered, and was eventually sunk.
context_page_description: Between 1966 and 1973, Spanish explorer Vital Alsar led three expeditions to cross the Pacific Ocean by raft - La Pacífica in 1966, La Balsa in 1970 and Las Balsas in 1973. Travelling from Ecuador, South America, to Australia, the first expedition failed, but the second and third succeeded, both setting the record for the longest known raft voyages in history - 8,600 miles and 9,000 miles respectively.
context_section_description: The expedition consisted of three rafts, twelve sailors and three cats. Each raft had four crewmen and one cat.
  Alsar required the prospective crew members to be able to navigate and be able to speak three languages.
  Except for the captains, the nine reaming members of the expedition changed rafts periodically.
  Having returned to Chile a month after the first voyage, original in La Balsa (1970), crew member Gabriel Salas was invited to join the Las Balsas crew.
  The crew was made of several nationalities:
  Vital Alsar, captain of the Guayaquil and expedition leader Spain.
  Marc Modena, captain of the Mooloolaba France.
  Jorge Ramírez, captain of the Aztlán Mexico.
  Fernand Robichaud Canada.
  Greg Holden Canada.
  Gaston Colin Canada.
  Tom McCormick United States.
  Tom Ward United States.
  Mike Fitzgibbons United States
  Hugo Becerra Chile (Becerra remained in Australia; the others eventually returned to their homeland).
  Gabriel Salas Chile
  Aníbal Guevara Ecuador.
caption: Exhibit of the surviving raft at the Ballina Naval and Maritime Museum, in Ballina, New South Wales.
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