We continued on our eastward heading throughout the day and this brought us headlong into the Southeast Trade Winds of the tropical seas in the Southern Hemisphere.  Winds are named according to the direction from which they come, that is, the direction in which one faces into the wind. These consistent air movements are called trade winds for good reason.  They produce a dependable mode of travel for sail-driven vessels and have been used by navigators for thousands of years. Pacific island navigators depended upon the trade winds (both the southeast trades in the Southern Hemisphere and northeast trades in the Northern Hemisphere) to wander about and find virtually all the islands in the South Pacific. Polynesians proved to be the best at this and managed to settle lands extending from New Zealand in the south to Easter Island in the East and Hawai’i in the north.  They even reached South America and traded with Native Americans. It’s amazing to realize that most of this, if not all, was accomplished long before Europeans managed to cross the relatively narrow North Atlantic Ocean to reach the Americas. 

In spite of the constant wind (15-20 knots) and perhaps a little more motion than some would have liked, the stabilizers worked beautifully and we had a nice ride. Out on deck, people enjoyed pleasant weather with alternating cloud cover and sunshine. And, all day long, our stalwart naturalists maintained a watch from the Observation Deck and/or the bow looking for interesting marine life. We crossed what seemed to be an immense length of open water hundreds of kilometers from any speck of land. It felt as though we were all alone and yet not alone. Several species of seabirds were sighted, mostly shearwaters, roaming the seas in search of … whatever. 

During the day, our time was punctuated by some very interesting presentations by our naturalists and photographers. There was a lot of pertinent information and entertainment to be had.  This day also gave us a chance to relax and prepare for our next destination … the legendary islands of Fiji.