At Sea
Ocean all around, all the way to where the sky meets the water, neither a natural home to us. We are just visitors passing through. The National Geographic Endeavour is a restless ship. She likes to take long ‘walks’ to the most interesting places. This is our first day of four at sea on our journey from South Georgia to Tristan da Cunha.
Cold this morning, but not for long, lots of birds around too, naturalist Richard White counted 20 species today, helped a little bit by a change of habitat. It happened in the mid-morning, the change. There are always fronts, approaching us, overtaking us, but that is the air, the sea is much more solid, more substantial, when it changes so does the air. Today, for the second time on this voyage, we experience an oceanic front, the Polar Front, the Antarctic Convergence. In a period of less than an hour the sea temperature rose from 38°F to 42°F. Behind us the Southern Ocean, the gelid waters eroding the shores of Antarctica, ahead of us, the temperate South Atlantic, not at all tame, still chilly, but completely different. The sea life changes, particularly the tiny things, the water color changes too, no longer so pale now. And when the front is sharp, like this morning, there are often birds, along the edge, where two seas collide.
Me? I look ahead, I’m restless too, but I also like to reflect, walk and think, about what I have seen and what I might see. Behind us South Georgia, four days there, almost a home: mountains, dark rocks where there is no snow or glacier; penguins and reindeer, fur and elephant seals; but that would be land and I did not walk there. I looked beneath the surface of the sea, at a beautiful anemone, that maybe no one has ever seen before. Now I wonder what new memories I will find. I have plenty of time. I am restless, but I do not like to go too fast.
Ocean all around, all the way to where the sky meets the water, neither a natural home to us. We are just visitors passing through. The National Geographic Endeavour is a restless ship. She likes to take long ‘walks’ to the most interesting places. This is our first day of four at sea on our journey from South Georgia to Tristan da Cunha.
Cold this morning, but not for long, lots of birds around too, naturalist Richard White counted 20 species today, helped a little bit by a change of habitat. It happened in the mid-morning, the change. There are always fronts, approaching us, overtaking us, but that is the air, the sea is much more solid, more substantial, when it changes so does the air. Today, for the second time on this voyage, we experience an oceanic front, the Polar Front, the Antarctic Convergence. In a period of less than an hour the sea temperature rose from 38°F to 42°F. Behind us the Southern Ocean, the gelid waters eroding the shores of Antarctica, ahead of us, the temperate South Atlantic, not at all tame, still chilly, but completely different. The sea life changes, particularly the tiny things, the water color changes too, no longer so pale now. And when the front is sharp, like this morning, there are often birds, along the edge, where two seas collide.
Me? I look ahead, I’m restless too, but I also like to reflect, walk and think, about what I have seen and what I might see. Behind us South Georgia, four days there, almost a home: mountains, dark rocks where there is no snow or glacier; penguins and reindeer, fur and elephant seals; but that would be land and I did not walk there. I looked beneath the surface of the sea, at a beautiful anemone, that maybe no one has ever seen before. Now I wonder what new memories I will find. I have plenty of time. I am restless, but I do not like to go too fast.
