An 80-year-old Devoran explorer has embarked on yet another transatlantic sailing adventure, this time to two remote islands in the Pacific Ocean.

James Wharram and his Dutch partner Hanneke Boon are heading to the Phillipines to oversee the finishing touches to two double canoes, which are being made thanks to the fundraising efforts of Devoran Church and the village's residents.

They kick-started the fundraising to build the two canoes - which have a combined cost of £60,000 - that will be gifted to the islands of Tikopia and Anuta, near Papua New Guinea.

Inhabitants of the islands, which Mr Wharram and Ms Boon first visited over a decade ago, are currently dependant on a dilapidated boat that visits the islands on an increasingly infrequent basis.

The canoes will allow the Polynesian islanders to keep their traditional sailing and fishing practises alive.

German yachtsman Klaus Hympendahl, who was first introduced to Mr Wharram and Ms Boon by the chiefs on Tikopia, has helped raise a large part of the necessary money.

Last Thursday Mr Wharram and Ms Boon went out to meet him in the Phillipines, before the trio sail to Tikopia and Anuta in November.

However, the project, which has been called the Lapita Voyage, has since grown from a simple donation of two ships, to a major archaeological expedition.

Five scientists will be sailing on different legs of the voyage, which provides ways of studying Polynesian migrations and Lapita culture that would be impossible from a land-based expedition.

The expedition is being filmed by a freelance cameraman from England and the footage could potentially be shown on television in the future.