Tristan da Cunha
Land Ho! After 5 days at sea and 1600 nautical miles from South Georgia, this afternoon we raised the westernmost island of the Tristan da Cunha group—Inaccessible Island. Behind the 500m top of Inaccessible we could make out the characteristic shape of the main island, Tristan itself, rising to more than 2000 meters. To the right of Inaccessible we could see Nightingale Island. Considering that the ocean floor in this area is about 3700 meters deep, these are all mountains of significant height, with Tristan attaining 5700 meters or more than 17,000 feet. These volcanic mountains are our first sight of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge which runs below us from a bit south of here all the way north to Jan Mayan, north of Iceland. Our arrival at Tristan was delayed by heavy weather, but we very much look forward to spending all day tomorrow visiting Tristan and Nightingale Islands.
As we approached Inaccessible—one look explains the name as sheer 500 meter cliffs rise right out of the sea to the lava cap on top—we saw thousands of Great Shearwaters rafting up in the evening preparatory to their return to their burrows after dark when they are safer from predation by skuas. There were also many of the birds which breed only on Tristan including the Spectacled Petrel and the beautiful Yellow-nosed Albatross. There were also members of the Tristan population of Wandering Albatross flying about the ship in the perfect evening light, giving the photographers a wonderful opportunity to add to their mounting collections of spectacular photographic memories of this epic voyage.
Land Ho! After 5 days at sea and 1600 nautical miles from South Georgia, this afternoon we raised the westernmost island of the Tristan da Cunha group—Inaccessible Island. Behind the 500m top of Inaccessible we could make out the characteristic shape of the main island, Tristan itself, rising to more than 2000 meters. To the right of Inaccessible we could see Nightingale Island. Considering that the ocean floor in this area is about 3700 meters deep, these are all mountains of significant height, with Tristan attaining 5700 meters or more than 17,000 feet. These volcanic mountains are our first sight of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge which runs below us from a bit south of here all the way north to Jan Mayan, north of Iceland. Our arrival at Tristan was delayed by heavy weather, but we very much look forward to spending all day tomorrow visiting Tristan and Nightingale Islands.
As we approached Inaccessible—one look explains the name as sheer 500 meter cliffs rise right out of the sea to the lava cap on top—we saw thousands of Great Shearwaters rafting up in the evening preparatory to their return to their burrows after dark when they are safer from predation by skuas. There were also many of the birds which breed only on Tristan including the Spectacled Petrel and the beautiful Yellow-nosed Albatross. There were also members of the Tristan population of Wandering Albatross flying about the ship in the perfect evening light, giving the photographers a wonderful opportunity to add to their mounting collections of spectacular photographic memories of this epic voyage.
