Thank you so much for posting the link to the map of Pacific Ocean
currents, which is he

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Pacific_Gyre

Easter Island is the small dot in the lower middle.

It appears from the currents shown on this map that the currents
around Easter Island while not strong would take the hapless traveler
to Chile. In order to go West, one would have to take the currents far
to the North of Easter Island along the "Peru Humboldt Current". That
is the route the Kon-Tiki took and that it the reason Thor Heyerdahl
would up where he did.

On the other hand a man in a canoe in Tahiti taking the proverbial
"three hour tour" might wind up in the more Southern currents that
would take him to Easter Island or to Chile.

Sam Sloan

On Mon, Jul 25, 2011 at 4:17 PM, Bill wrote:

Thor Heyerdahl's theory is that Easter Island was populated by Native
Americans who sailed from what is now Chile. He claims that the winds
blow to the West and thus the winds could have carried a sail boat
like the Kon-Tiki there.

One problem with this theory is that the Ocean Currents flow in the
opposite direction. A man in a canoe paddling around Tahiti, if he got
lost or swept away by the currents, would go East and might wind up at
Easter Island or in Chile. He could eat fish from the sea along the
way.

The Kon Tiki was wind powered, and not strictly limited to the
direction the currents flowed.

In anycase...

Easter Island is more or less in the center of the Southern Pacific
Gyre.

Which is to say, waters to the south of it flow eastward towards
Chile, those to the north flow west from Peru into the south Pacific.
Hyerdahl's Kon Tiki was patterned after the balsa wood craft used on
Lake Titicaca in Peru. His sailed westward from Peru using the north
flowing Humboldt Current, then picked up the north equitorial current
to travel west. His course took him westward to the Tuamotu Islands,
4300 miles from the south American Coasst, and well to the west of
Easter Island. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Pacific_Gyre
for mapping of Pacific ocean currents.)

Hyerdahls objective was not to prove that Easter Island was settled
from South America, but only to show that it was possible.
He may not have made landfall on Easter Island, but his voyage did
show that this was technically possible.

Because of its location in the center of the South Pacific Gyre,
Easter Island is hard to get to accidentally, either sailing east or
west. Hard to get to, but not impossible.

Whether it occurred or not, in the way Hyerdahl was suggesting, is
another matter, but his view continues to resurface periodically in
the literature.

Bill