The replica boat on its journey of re-enactment.
A FOUR-MAN crew has for the first time re-enacted Captain William Bligh's 6500-kilometre journey in an open boat across the Pacific Ocean 221 years ago - using similar navigational equipment and facing the same deprivations.
The 7.6-metre wooden Talisker Bounty Boat, captained by Australian adventurer Don McIntyre, arrived off Indonesian West Timor last night after a seven-week voyage from Tonga.
The crew had no charts, no almanacs, no modern timepieces or navigation equipment, no torches - not even toilet paper.
William Bligh
They survived gale-force winds and six-metre waves crashing over the boat soon after setting sail on April 28 from the position where Captain Bligh was cast adrift from HMS Bounty in 1789.
Mr McIntyre, 55, was shortly after struck down with excruciating pain that did not stop until he eventually passed six kidney stones over 24 hours.
And there were tensions among the crew during the voyage. Chris Wilde, who had no previous sailing experience, wrote from the boat last Sunday morning that he ''went off'' at fellow British crew member Dave Wilkinson ''pretty viciously'', but not without cause, apparently.
''In this close environment he does have a few habits and mannerisms that can be pretty detestable,'' Mr Wilde wrote.
''It's gotten to the point where it's like … it's like I want to rip off my own arm, just so that I could have something to throw at him.''
The boat had a GPS tracking system that tracked the voyage every two hours for people to follow on the taliskerbountyboat.com website, but it was locked away from the crew.
The only other concession to the 21st century was a liferaft and other essential safety equipment, and a satellite computer link so the crew could send daily blogs, photos and audio clips to tell their story.
The crew charted exactly the same course as Bligh, setting sail first to Tofua to take on extra food and water, before heading west across the top of Fiji and the Vanuatu islands to the Queensland coast, where they landed on Restoration Island.
From there they sailed north inside the Great Barrier Reef to Thursday Island, and then through the Torres Strait and on to the West Timor port of Kupang.
As the boat neared West Timor, Mr McIntyre wrote that no matter how hard he and his crew were on themselves, they could never feel the same levels of deprivation and fear that those on Bligh's boat must have felt because they never knew they would survive. ''My feelings for him and his men have grown very strong.''
During the voyage the crew monitored sea life and water temperatures, which they will compare with the detailed log that Bligh kept.
Scientists have also been studying the crew's stress levels, sleep patterns and general health.
The crew hopes to raise more than $250,000 for the Sheffield Institute Foundation for Motor Neurone Disease, which is building an institute to study motor neurone disease, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
