Today we spent our last full day in the southern hemisphere; tomorrow we will cross the equator, a major milestone in our long trek up the spine of the Atlantic Ocean. In the past three weeks, since we left the windswept Falkland Islands, we have dipped below the Antarctic Convergence, into truly polar waters at South Georgia and then traversed 54 degrees of latitude, passing through temperate waters into the calm tropical seas where we now sail.
Along the way we have learned about and experienced for ourselves the great wind and current systems that drive the weather of our planet. The Westerlies, the Horse Latitudes, the Southeast Tradewinds, the Doldrums, all these fabled regions from the days of tall ships are now familiar to us, as they were to sailors and explorers hundreds of years ago. At the same time we have watched the wildlife and ecosystems around our ship change in concert with the physical environment through which we have journeyed. Leaving albatrosses and fur seals in our wake, we have hailed the appearance of tropicbirds, and frigatebirds, icons of the tropical seas.
Beneath the waves the scene has shifted just as dramatically. At South Georgia we encountered sea spiders and giant isopods, strange creatures perfectly adapted to the dark, icy waters of the polar ocean. Tristan Da Cunha revealed to us swarms of lobster and sea bream at home in a towering kelp forest, like that of Chile or California. Now, at St. Helena and Ascension, we find ourselves looking into the bright, clear water of the tropics, in a unique island environment which blends familiar species from both sides of the Atlantic with endemic forms found nowhere else on the globe. This pretty little Hedgehog Butterfly fish is a good example of such an endemic species, and we found it to be quite common at St Helena. The aptly named Fang-tooth Moray Eel presents a fiercer appearance but no real threat; it is found near the tropical Atlantic Islands between St. Helena and the Azores and from the Mediterranean.
Three weeks from icebergs to parrotfish - it is a small planet after all, so full of mystery and variety, so beautifully interconnected when woven together by a journey such as this.
