In the early hours of the morning, National Geographic Explorer officially entered Brazilian waters, much to the delight of all the guests and crew alike. Once again we were blessed with sunny skies and calm seas, and those up early enough were rewarded with a beautiful sunrise to start the day. As the ship continues our journey north, we have experienced a noticeable change in the sea bird species observed by our avid birdwatchers on the bridge. Among the many species of birds seen, there were several new types spotted and included the yellow nosed albatross, Cory’s shearwater & both the spectacled and Atlantic petrel.
Onboard there was no shortage of informative presentations from our natural history staff. In anticipation of our upcoming visit to Rio de Janeiro, historian Mark Curran gave guests an interesting overview of the history, culture and highlights the city has to offer. Deb Goodwin also gave us an insight into the world of plankton and its importance in our oceans.
This epic journey which covers thousands of nautical miles has presented a great opportunity for oceanographer Deb Goodwin and naturalist Danelle Hickman to conduct an interesting and interactive experiment to measure the changes in our surrounding ocean environment. Throughout the trip water samples have been collected along with help from guests to measure changes in temperature, salinity and clarity as we travel from the southern to the northern hemisphere. The data collected so far has already shown a significant change in water temperature as the ship has moved out of the sub-polar waters of the Falkland current into the warmer sub-tropical current coming down from northern Brazil.
It was another great day to dine outside on the sun deck for lunch and make the most of the calm conditions, and guests were treated to an afternoon of entertainment hosted by naturalist Ian Strachan in the lounge. As the sun set on another day at sea, we are one day closer to our visit to Brazil. Screening of the classic movie Black Orpheus was sure to get us excited about our activities we have to look forward to in the days to come.
