It is sometimes hard to define the nature of a journey such as this. We refer to the voyage as an expedition, which can be defined as “a journey or voyage made for a specific purpose.” It is also true that as a group of travelers on board the National Geographic Orion we have become the expedition. It can also be considered that a journey of 4,200 nautical miles around the Coral Sea, beginning for some of us in Auckland, others in Honiara, would be a grand adventure. And an adventure can be defined as “an undertaking of uncertain outcome.” Today has been one of those days when, if it was not already, we are now on an adventure.
A tropical depression formed over the Solomon Islands a few days after we left. Honiara, the laid back capital of the Solomon Islands (see the DER for April 1), was devastated by the heaviest rain and the worst flooding in living memory on April 4. Tropical storms are neither new nor completely unexpected in this part of the world, but at a time when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has just issued another report warning of the potential impacts of climate change, one has to wonder if extreme weather events will become a more frequent event that we have to deal with and adapt.
Meanwhile, the depression moved on, following our course, and has now become a fully-fledged tropical storm with a name: Cyclone Ita. As always, our highly adaptable Captain and Expedition Leader were monitoring the situation and implemented Plan B. Rather than continue with our proposed itinerary and risk getting caught out by the storm on the exposed Queensland coast, we altered course and are now riding comfortably heading for the safe harbour of Cairns.
There is of course disappointment at missing some locations that we had hoped to visit. But on the positive side we will avoid the worst of the storm and we now have three days to explore the surroundings of Cairns; rich in natural beauty and wildlife. As we are still on the expedition, and there is now the added sense of adventure, we are not entirely sure what the outcome will be, but we will have a fine time finding out: watch this space.
