Adventurers start epic Bligh journey recreation

Four adventurers aiming to recreate the epic 6,500 kilometre (4,000 mile) Pacific journey of William Bligh have set off from the site of the famous mutiny on The Bounty.

Australian sailor and adventurer Don McIntyre is captaining a 25-foot-long (7.6-metre) replica of an 18th century whaling boat, which he aims to sail west from Tonga to Timor, following the path taken by Bligh 221 years earlier.

"We're incredibly excited to start the expedition today and feel close to the experience of Captain Bligh and his crew," McInture said in a statement late Thursday.

"However everyone aboard the Talisker Bounty boat will be pushed to the limit of endurance and survival, forever hungry and unsure of everything, except their own desire to fight through this," he said.

Bligh and 18 loyalists were cast adrift from the British naval ship The Bounty by a group of mutineers led by Fletcher Christian on April 28, 1789, near the Tongan island of Tofua.

McIntyre and his three crewmen Thursday set out from the Tongan island of Kelefesia for Tofua - where one of Bligh's men was killed by a Tongan - before heading west towards Fiji.

They had intended to leave Kelefesia on the 221st anniversary of the mutiny on Wednesday but bad weather delayed them for a day.

"We haven't set up a navigation routine yet and there's still plenty to organise but like Bligh we hope to get fully organised once we reach land (on Tofua)," McIntyre said in a blog on the expedition's website www.bountyboat.com late Thursday.

Without any maps and inadequate food and water, Bligh navigated his 23-foot boat for 47 days across the Pacific and over the top of Australia to the nearest European settlement in Timor.

McIntyre will recreate as far as possible the conditions faced by Bligh, with the four crew on short rations during the journey.

Joining McIntyre are experienced Australian sailor David Pryce, Hong Kong-based British businessman and sailor David Wilkinson and 18-year-old Briton Chris Wilde, who had never been in a boat before.

Although the four are trying to recreate the conditions faced by Bligh and his men, they will be accompanied by a support boat and are carrying hi-tech safety equipment in case of emergency.