Day 10
Saturday, April 9,
2005
Day after eclipse day, with many
miles and days to go before we return to land. We are really
out in the middle of nowhere. This area is out
of usual commerce routes, there is nothing to visit, and
we haven’t seen a ship since the day after we left the
Galapagos.
A couple of flying fish skimmed over the ocean
surface from the ship’s bow. As usual, in the
early morning hours dark silhouettes gather on the decks
to see the setting stars and rising sun. The clouds
gathered into a thick gray blanket and a fine drizzle
fell most of the day, making it seem even more
remarkable that we had been able to find the spot of
clear sky along the eclipse path.
Our ship was not really designed to
spend most of its time on the open sea, and can get a
good roll going even in calm weather. The kitchen
staff has been severely challenged by flying pots, pans,
dishes, and utensils—we occasionally hear loud crashes
behind the doors—and we have gotten used to grabbing
water glasses and plates when we feel the motion pick
up. Truly a
minor miracle of the trip is the consistently beautiful,
fresh, and abundant food that nonetheless appears three
times a day.
Eclipse chasers are an unusual lot,
and it seems that everyone has an interesting story to
tell and hidden talents to exhibit. It is easy to
while away the time in conversation, if not writing
journals, processing pictures, creating website
material, or attending the lectures. The focus has
moved away from the eclipse, and in the morning one of
the naturalist guides reviewed the story of tectonic
plates. In
the afternoon, Naomi Pasachoff read from some
biographies of famous scientists she wrote for a teenage
audience— but enjoyable for all. We heard
excerpts from books on Marie Curie and Neils Bohr. She told
the story of a time in Marie Curie’s life after her
husband had died, and how the press of the day made her
life miserable with speculation on a relationship with a
colleague—how times have not changed! Neils Bohr
played a key role from
Denmark
in rescuing Jewish scientists and academics during the
Second World War, then ultimately fleeing to
Sweden
and helping others to do the same.
David Levy (associated with Sky and
Telescope) and David Eicher (from Astronomy magazine)
spoke about deep sky observing and amateur
astronomy.
It used to be assumed that amateurs would not be
able to see anything significant in the deep sky, but
that has changed as more people have searched the sky
with ever better equipment. The Dobsonian
revolution in inexpensive, self-made large telescopes
made faint images more accessible, the “go to”
computerized scopes have helped others go deep, and
astrophotography has captured images in new detail. Careful
observing has picked up comets, variable stars,
asteroids, and even planets (Pluto).
After dinner, James Downing from the
Natural History Museum in
Denver gave
a lively recounting of the story of
Darwin’s
years of travel on the Beagle. This was a true
expedition, complete with a volatile ship’s captain,
months of journeying through inland mountains and
valleys, harrowing sea passages, near misses, and even
mortar attacks from
Argentina. Although best
known for the theory of evolution and observations in
the Galapagos, he was influenced by what he found
throughout
South America and the
southern hemisphere. He saw sea
shells in uplifted mountain ranges, and experienced a
major earthquake, which gave him clues to how the earth
could change over time—a new concept in his day. He met many
types of people, both aboriginal and those more recently
arrived, and noted how they had different skills and
physical abilities in different geographical
settings.
He saw a huge variety of plants and animals
throughout and drew connections between similar
specimens, setting the stage for his Galapagos work on
the origin of species.
At dinner, the captain and engineer
shared their stories of traveling the world, and some of
the changes wrought by 9-11. We also found
out that the Galapagos Legend was home to some of the
Hollywood crew during the filming
of “Master and Commander”, and for a trip by the former
US President Jimmy Carter and family. Chasing eclipses
is just another chapter in their story, but a good
one.
Day 11
Sunday, April 10,
2005
We continued the long journey home,
sky lightening, scattered clouds producing fantastic
sunrises and sunsets. We saw more
evidence of life—a couple of whale sightings, several
groups of dolphins gracefully arcing out of the water,
small storm petrels skimming the waves, two distant
ships, and lots of flying fish. They burst out of the
water as the ships passed to fly dozens of yards out
before returning to the ocean—far better flight than the
Galapagos flightless cormorants or penguins. Although the
water looked calm, the swells continued to play tricks
on the boat, tipping people out of chairs, toppling
coffee machines, making us all look like drunks
staggering around.
When a really good swell came through, we gave a
collective “whooooooaaaaaa!”
Byron, one of the naturalist guides,
told stories about some of the more colorful history of
people of the
Galapagos
Islands. The islands were
apparently uninhabited by humans before they were
discovered in the 1500’s by a bishop from
Panama. His expedition
found the dry landscape difficult, and they lost three
men and ten horses from thirst before it was over. Later, prisoners
were sent to the Galapagos to try to populate them, but
perhaps predictably they ended up fighting with and
killing each other. For a while an
abandoned Irish sailor nicknamed “Iguana Man” for his
red hair and peeling, red skin lived on one of the
islands, ultimately leaving in the company of some other
stranded sailors from a whaling boat, plying them with
homemade rum and then eating them for sustenance on his
trip to shore.
Several German recluses sought out
Floreana
Island,
including a dentist with his mistress, a family of four,
and a baroness with three lovers. After much
intrigue and infighting, they all met untimely ends as
well. Today
there are three islands where people live, but 97% of
the land is national park. The tourism and
park work is the driving force of the economy, and the
$100 park fee helps sustain the efforts to preserve the
natural flora and fauna of the Galapagos.
Hamid Khodashenas showed the video he
took of the eclipse two days ago, tracking it with a
large lens on our rocky ship. Hamid sent this
video to his web site by satellite phone so people
around the world could see what we came so far to
experience.
It captured many of the sights and sounds,
although no image can reproduce what it feels like to
witness the event in person. Besides the video, we were
treated to a film about the Iranian astronomical
society, and some beautiful pictures of Iranian people
and countryside, plus some delicious Iranian
pistachios.
“Klipsi”, an avid eclipse and weather
chaser from Switzerland, showed pictures he has taken
from around the world—partial eclipses, annular
eclipses, total eclipses, tornadoes, lightning strikes,
storm clouds, sunsets--a feast of photographic
marvels.
Vojtech Rusin of
Slovakia
shared more information about the sun, using a series of
video clips showing the fantastic surface, constantly
changing, with relatively cooler sunspots. We saw images of
periodic mass coronal ejections blasting out past the
earth to disrupt our magnetic fields, interfere with
satellites, endanger astronauts, and yet produce lovely
auroras in the night sky. Because the sun
is supposed to be near minimum in the 11-year sunspot
cycle, the corona during the eclipse was expected to be
oval, with long streamers extending from the center and
shorter emissions at the poles. However, we
observed a corona that was somewhat more even all around
than expected.
Images from this eclipse will be studied together
with data from ongoing
SOHO
images to better understand space weather.
Day 12
Monday, April 11, 2005
It is
beginning to seem as if we have always been out on the
open sea, cruising along in familiar company. We did travel to
just about as far away from any land you can get on the
planet—a good thousand miles from the closest island in
any direction.
There were more hints we were getting closer to
land however—a couple of ships in the distance and a few
swallow-tailed gulls showed up, along with our friends
the flying fish and rare whale. Sunrises and
sunsets have been dramatic with low clouds and brilliant
colors, but no elusive “green flash” at the end. Weather was
pleasant and warm with mixed sun and clouds and a fine
breeze.
In the morning we were treated to a
interview with Galileo (David Levy) and his daughter
Suor Maria Celeste (Dava Sobel—author of “Galileo’s
Daughter”), moderated by Wendy Levy. This will be
available later on the www.letstalkstars.com
show which the Levys host. Marie Celeste
was only 10 when her father made his famous observations
of the moon of Jupiter and phases of Venus, and was put
into a convent by Galileo when he was being prosecuted
for heresy by the Catholic Church. The letters she
wrote to him reveal the love between father and
daughter, and how they helped each other during the
difficult times.
David Levy talked about his life as a
seeker of comets.
When he was in school in
Canada,
he had to answer the question, “what career do you want
to pursue?” in French. He replied, “Je
veux decouvrir un comete!” (I want to discover a
comet). To
which his astonished examiner retorted, in English, “How
the hell are you going to make a living doing
that?” He
followed his passion nonetheless, and in 1984 discovered
the first of many comets. The most famous
was Shoemaker-Levy 9, which broke into over 20 pieces
and plummeted spectacularly into Jupiter in 1994,
supporting the theory that comets have played a key role
in the history of the planets, even bringing water and
life to earth.
Someone later gave him a shirt reading “My Damn
Comet Crashed!” to commemorate the historic event. The find
happened on a night of observation when he and the
Shoemakers almost gave up because the film for the
telescope had been spoiled and was only marginally
usable.
But, as Gene Shoemaker said, you never know what
you’re going to find and it’s always worth a try. And
what an historic find it was!
James Downing had gathered a willing
cast of passengers and they presented a reading of his
award-winning play, “Charles and Emma”. The play was
developed from letters by Charles Darwin and his wife,
and showed the human side of
Darwin’s
life. His
health was not good, he struggled to publish his
research, the Anglican Church fueled opposition to his
theory of evolution, and he had to deal with reluctance
in his own marriage to accept the implications of his
work. It
was believed that everything in the world was created in
full form directly by a divine hand, and evidence that
continents shifted, sea beds rose up to become
mountains, and plants and animals changed over time to
adapt to their particular environments was troubling to
the prevailing world view. As scientific
inquiry has supported evolution, and as our
understanding of our planet’s place in the universe has
grown, it seems incredible that the battles
Darwin
fought are still being played out today in some parts of
the world.
In the evening, more people shared
pictures they took of the eclipse and the journey. Despite the
challenges of a moving ship, there were many beautiful,
clear shots of the different stages, including the
double diamond ring effect caused by the particular
alignment of lunar mountains as the sun’s rays peeked
between.
The sunset outside was a brilliant orange, and
the deck filled with people looking for the famous
“green flash” that sometimes occurs just at the sunset’s
end, but without luck. Later, the
slender crescent moon passed directly by the Pleiades,
looking like a cascade of stars falling out of the
tipped crescent, while the Milky Way filled the center
of the sky, the Large Magellanic Cloud below it near the
horizon, the Southern Cross and Omega Centauri globular
cluster reminding us that we were still in the Southern
Hemisphere.
Day 13
Tuesday, April 12,
2005
Land ho! We all stood on
the deck and couldn’t take out eyes off the sight of
landfall—RedondoIsland, Fernandina, Isabella,
Santiago. Home at
last. How
beautiful it was to see the earth, the green, the life
all around.
The ocean swells subsided for the first time in
over a week, and we almost missed their presence.
Redondo is a bird rookery, the
first outcropping we passed, with clouds of birds
massing off the cliffs, filling the air, and occupying
every crevice suitable for a nest. Red-billed
tropic birds with their long showy tail feathers flew
elegantly by, as did boobies, gulls, petrels, frigate
birds, and pelicans. Then off the
bow—porpoises!
Lots and lots of bottle-nosed porpoises, showing
off with gymnastic leaps high above the waves, splashing
all about us.
Right behind them came a pod of false orcas,
larger, darker dolphins that travel in large groups and
breach the water in a slower, more stately fashion. They show off
their dorsal fin and hump as they arc downwards, which
does look a bit like a whale. What a wonderful
welcome back.
We passed by “Buccaneer’s Cove”, a
hideaway used by pirates in years past, and now just a
beautiful cove on Santiago Island guarded
by a striking red rock outcropping and home to many
birds. The
crew came onto the pool deck for a group picture. One! One hand in the
air.
Two!
Two fingers in a V. Three! Both hands in
the air. We
did it!
There is an ancient tradition of
mariners who crossed the equator—kind of an initiation
rite to appease Neptune, the god of the ocean. We had crossed
the equator numerous times on this voyage, and our ship
followed the tradition with a modern version, throwing a
Neptune party for the
passengers.
They conscripted a cast including King Neptune,
his Queen, the Prince of Tides, pirates, sea creatures,
and some demons.
Neptune declared that he
was very upset at the captain for crossing the equator
without permission, and the “pirates” grabbed the
captain to come before him. He protested
that it was the passengers wanting to see the eclipse
who made him do it, and the pirates then grabbed a
number of passengers to come before
Neptune and be his slaves. However, they
would be granted freedom if they would drink a
concoction of “turtle blood” or “iguana pee” and then
perform tasks—each one had to imitate a Galapagos
animal--which they did with great creativity. Thus appeased,
Neptune then declared a
party! It
started with a round songs by “Sir Edmund Halley and the
Comets”—specially composed and sung by the passengers,
including such new hits as “Rockin’, Rollin’, Ridin’”
(apologies to “Morningtown” and Raffi), “Home”
(apologies to Home on the Range), and “Rock Around the
Ship” (apologies to “Rock around the Clock” and Bill
Haley and the Comets). After the songs, there was
dancing and celebrating into the night.
Rock
Around the Clock (apologies
to Bill Haley and the Comets, words by Khati Hendry)
Well, it’s one for the
captain, two for the ship
Out
on the ocean, gotta move your hips
We’re gonna rock around the
clock tonight
We’re gonna rock and rock and
roll ‘til the broad daylight
We’re gonna rock, we’re gonna
rock around the ship tonight.
At
breakfast time, better say grace
There’s scrambled eggs all
over the place
They’re on the floor, they’re
on the wall
It’s
a miracle there’s food at all
We’re gonna rock, we’re gonna
rock around the ship tonight
If
you lose your spoon, don’t you cry
Grab
another as it sails by
This
cruise is cool ‘cause I got to see
A
real flying saucer as it flew past me
We’re gonna rock, we’re gonna
rock around the ship tonight
In
the lecture hall they all were wowed
When
my armchair tipped and I mooned the crowd
You
know I tried to leave, didn’t get far
When
the bottles crashed down off the bar
We’re gonna rock, we’re gonna
rock around the ship tonight
Went
to the doctor--couldn’t stand--
She
shot me up with Phenergan
I
took the pills, I used the patch,
A
little ginger—down the hatch
We’re gonna rock, we’re gonna
rock around the ship tonight
Well
I went to sleep, began to snore
When
I woke up I was on the floor!
Next
time I cruise, my wardrobe’s hue
Will
coordinate with black and blue
We’re gonna rock, we’re gonna
rock around the ship tonight
On
e-clipse day, I swear it’s true
The
sun was a-rockin’ and the moon was too
That
old rock star put on a show—
You
can see it in my video
We’re gonna rock, we’re gonna
rock around the ship tonight.
Home
(apologies to Home on the
Range, words by Khati Hendry)
Oh
give me a home where land tortoises roam
A
place where my camera won’t sway
Where I’ll walk around,
without falling down
And
the floor stays beneath me all day.
The
ocean is grand, but when you’re far from land
The
waves aren’t so swell when they swell
Much
china was lost, and cookies were tossed,
Oh
the stories the kitchen could tell!
Home, home from the sea
And
though we saw totality
We
rolled and we thrashed, and it cost lots of cash
Now
home I am ready to be.
Eclipse was our quest as we
traveled out west
As
far from dry land you can get
And
we sailed and we sailed, and we sailed and we sailed
And
I think that we’re still sailing yet.
Sunsets were sublime though
we never did find
The
notorious final green flash.
Now
the land’s drawing nigh and the boobies fly by
Terra firma I see you at
last!
Home, home soon I’ll be.
There’s e-mail that’s waiting
for me.
That
thought’s such a fright, I think that I might
Decide to go back out to sea.
Rockin’ Rollin’ Ridin’
(apologies to Morningtown and
Raffi, word by Khati Hendry)
Rockin’, rollin’, ridin’ out
along the bay
Bound for totality many miles
away.
Somewhere sun is shining,
somewhere skies aren’t gray,
Somewhere I’ll see the
eclipse, many miles away.
Rockin’, rollin’, ridin’,
back along the bay
Bound for Galapagos many
miles away.
Somewhere birds are singing,
land iguanas play,
Safe
and sound we’re homeward bound, many miles
away.
