At Sea

Sunday is supposed to be a day at rest, but that doesn’t happen very often for most of us. Yet at day at sea can definitely be a day of relaxation and rest. There was plenty of opportunity to catch up on a good book, a puzzle or the reading assignment for the Aspen Institute seminar series. Other activities included a chance for all of the keen photographers to gather in the lounge for the South Georgia photography critique. The last lecture of the day was “Photography of South Georgia” by fellow guest, Mark Hannaford and underwater footage taken by our undersea specialist Kelvin Murray.

The stormy seas calmed throughout the day and the ship was followed by hundreds of seabirds. We saw several new species including a first glimpse of the Tristan yellow-nosed albatross, spectacled petrel and broad-billed prions.
It was also a good day to go up to the bridge and learn a bit about navigation from the super friendly Chief Mate Ben Lyons, who showed us how to navigate using traditional paper charts, the electronic charts with Global Positioning System (GPS) and the radar.

During the late afternoon the National Geographic Explorer was 445 nautical miles away from Tristan de Cunha and we have travelled 962 nautical miles since leaving South Georgia. We are making good speed of an average of 13 knots and the winds were more from a southwesterly direction which is giving us a nice comfortable, following sea. Our fingers are crossed for more calm conditions as we continue our way towards Tristan.