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Daily Expedition
Reports
24 Mar 2023
At Sea Towards Saint Helena, 3/24/2023, National Geographic Explorer
Aboard the
National Geographic Explorer
Atlantic Isles
We have been sailing for two days now. Tristan da Cunha is behind us, and the island of Saint Helena is ahead of us. We are still too far to see it, but that does not stop us from squinting into the distance from time to time, wishing it closer and closer.
Days like this one go at their own unique pace, allowing us to catch our breath after the intense activity of our last landing. We recharge our batteries in expectation of what lies ahead.
It was a good day to attend presentations. Jim Kelley spoke on wind, waves, and water, and Eduardo Shaw revisited the thrilling life of Captain James Cook. After lunch, we had the chance to learn more about the intricacies of Lightroom with David Cothran, and we finished off the day with a bit of friendly competition with our very own first GeoBee. Feeling refreshed and well-rested, we look forward to what tomorrow brings on our voyage towards the island where Napoleon spent his last days.
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Today we visited Fogo, the famous, active volcano of the Cape Verde Islands. Fogo (“fire” in Portuguese) has been erupting episodically since at least 1500 and likely for centuries or millennia before that. Pirate William Dampier observed an eruption in 1632. We took our Zodiacs ashore into the small harbor and rode on local vans from the coastal town of São Felipe up into the mountains and into the caldera itself. We drove across lava from the 1951 eruption which breached the caldera rim, and we walked past the sign welcoming us to the National Park and past the blocky lava from the eruption. We then drove along the old road into the caldera. We soon encountered a detour necessitated by the fact that the most recent eruption in 2014 had covered the road with a lava flow that was about seven meters thick. The new road took us around the caldera wall to the little village of Cha das Caldeiras. The village was destroyed by lava in the 1995 eruption, rebuilt, and then destroyed again by the 2014 lava. Fresh lava is everywhere throughout the village, but residents are slowly rebuilding once again and have constructed a number of new houses, a new inn, and a new winery to continue the wine business that was flourishing before the most recent eruption. We were tremendously impressed by the persistence of the citizens of Cha das Caldeiras, who began rebuilding in 2015 while the lava was still glowing. After our inspiring visit to the caldera and the village of Cha, we returned to the harbor and once again took our Zodiacs back to National Geographic Explorer . We weighed anchor and continued our northward voyage to our next landing in the Canary Islands.
We could not see Cape Verde from where we started the morning given the mist and the Sahara dust floating in the air. But the amount of wildlife around the ship spoke of the nearby seabird colonies known to this group of islands, many of them endemic to Macaronesia. After lunch, we departed in different directions, some to have a look at the historical sites, the town, and its market and others to try finding some of the endemic birds that live here. All came back amazed by the color of the town and the beautiful people who inhabit this remote archipelago.
By first light, many of us were on deck as we sailed in the proximity of a sea mount. The expectancy was palpable. The skies were filled with dust from the Sahara, and this became more evident as the sun rose. The dust surrounding us is part of the harmattan winds, which blow from November to March each year and can carry the dust as far as Florida, the Caribbean Islands, and the Amazon. We were rewarded, of course, with good numbers of seabirds and two fleeting views of a small group of cetaceans, in all likelihood a species of beaked whale. We saw the dorsal fins twice and then all trace of these marine mammals was lost. There were two birds sighted that were unexpected: a species of dove and a small passerine that was greenish in color. The dove turned out to be a European turtle dove and was seen by many of us at different times throughout the day. These birds must have been blown out to sea and happened to come across the ship. The little greenish bird was never seen again, maybe ending up as a snack for the jaegers that were seen during the early morning. Like our other sea days, the day was filled with a wide range of activities that included galley tours, the final round of the GeoBee, navigation workshops, fun facts about the Atlantic, and two presentations. The first presentation was given by Carlos Garrandés Megía on, “Building a Whaleboat: Approaching Practice through Anticipation.” The second presentation, “The Transatlantic Slave Trade,” was masterfully presented by Andrew Evans. How important it is to be reminded, lest we forget, the horror of this atrocity. During the afternoon, persevering nature observers were rewarded with numerous seabird sightings as well as flying fish, pilot whales, and a couple of fleeting looks at sperm whales. We anticipate being on land once again tomorrow: Santiago Island in the Cape Verde archipelago.