La Balsa was the name of a 1970 expedition led by Spaniard Vital Alsar

Vital Alsar

Vital Alsar Ramirez was born on August 7, 1933, in "Calle Alta" in Santander, Cantabria, Spain.His entire life has been linked to nature and the sea. He became professor of economics, although he never acted as such....

 to sail a Balsa raft

Raft

A raft is any flat structure for support or transportation over water. It is the most basic of boat design, characterized by the absence of a hull...

 from South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

 to Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 across the Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

.

The 8,600 mile voyage was, at the time, the longest in known history, only eclipsed by the 1973 Las Balsas

Las Balsas

The 1973 Las Balsas expedition was the first multiple-raft crossing of the Pacific Ocean in recent history. It is the longest-known raft voyage in history....

 expedition, again led by Alsar.

The expedition lasted 160 days, starting in Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

 on May 29, 1970, and ended at Mooloolaba on November 5, 1970.