The Voyage of the Sarimanok 1986

“A film of Bob Hobman’s attempt to sail across the Indian Ocean in a primitive native craft. He aimed to show that the people of Madagascar, who originally came from Indonesia 2,500 years ago, sailed, not in a series of stages, but directly across the Indian Ocean, in one of the great epic voyages of history. His voyage took 65 days.“ Narrators: Rupert Frazer & Robert (Bob) Hobman; expedition leaders: Robert Hobman and Charles (Chico) Hansen; crew: Steve Corrigan, Sally Crook, Robin Davy, Don King, W. (Bill) McGrath, Colin Putt, Peter Rogers, Albrecht Schaeffer. Bob Hobman’s book “Sarimanok“ is available from Amazon’s Kindle (as an e-book, hard or soft cover book), or from Kobo (). “Sarimanok is the thrilling story of an attempt to cross the Indian Ocean in a 20-metre-long dugout canoe to demonstrate how the Austronesian-speaking people of Madagascar may have colonised their island some 1,500 years before Christ. Characters on the way include cuthroat rebels and pirates, sea gypsies, mystical way-finders, primitive ship builders, people who hunt whales with homemade spears and boats with palm woven sails. It is a story of bold determination, tragedy and triumph; all the elements the sea delivers to those who who enter its realm. But mostly it is a story of a remarkable vessel and the equally remarkable people who sailed it; like the artist Chico Hansen who began another journey before Sarimanok’s had ended. It is to Chico the book is dedicated.“