A Day at Sea
A day at sea often brings about moments of reflection. Images flashed before my mind of our time spent on the National Geographic Endeavour. We had traveled a long way, and by tomorrow, approximately two-thousand nine hundred nautical miles and our senses had been assaulted by amazing sights, smells and sounds.
We had been seduced by the exotic beauty of Bora Bora with its towering volcanic peaks and fragrant flowers. At the small village of Rotoava located on the northeastern end of Fakarava, we had discovered the industry of cultured oyster pearls, swam in the azure lagoon and had ridden the strong currents of Garuae Pass in a most thrilling dive. We had discovered, while snorkeling on the reefs of Raroia and Ravahere Atolls, the bluest, clearest water seen anywhere in the world; we had been amazed and awed by the presence of large schools of jacks and numbers of sharks all encountered in shallow water. We had piled into the very seaworthy and trusted longboats of Pitcairn Island, and had trekked up to the lookout and had visited with John Adams’s and Fletcher Christian’s descendants; we had done it all. We had made every landing we had intended to, including Henderson, a UNESCO Biosphere Site and Ducie Island with its astounding resident bird populations of over five hundred thousand nesting seabirds.
Here are some excerpts from our fellow travelers on their thoughts of today:
“It was good to sleep in today, but the most exciting part was the numbers of sharks and birds!”
“So many highlights…not easy to pick one event, the dancers of Papeete, the Zodiacs being on the spot, an experience I never had before.”
“Pitcairn was fascinating, a microcosm, and people friendly and genuine.”
And in closing, if I may borrow the words of Charles Clerke, the favorite Lieutenant of Captain James Cook on his departure from Polynesia:
“’Tis with some reluctance I bid adieu to these happy isles, where I’ve spent very many happy days…In short, in my opinion, they are as pleasant and happy spots as the world contains.”
A day at sea often brings about moments of reflection. Images flashed before my mind of our time spent on the National Geographic Endeavour. We had traveled a long way, and by tomorrow, approximately two-thousand nine hundred nautical miles and our senses had been assaulted by amazing sights, smells and sounds.
We had been seduced by the exotic beauty of Bora Bora with its towering volcanic peaks and fragrant flowers. At the small village of Rotoava located on the northeastern end of Fakarava, we had discovered the industry of cultured oyster pearls, swam in the azure lagoon and had ridden the strong currents of Garuae Pass in a most thrilling dive. We had discovered, while snorkeling on the reefs of Raroia and Ravahere Atolls, the bluest, clearest water seen anywhere in the world; we had been amazed and awed by the presence of large schools of jacks and numbers of sharks all encountered in shallow water. We had piled into the very seaworthy and trusted longboats of Pitcairn Island, and had trekked up to the lookout and had visited with John Adams’s and Fletcher Christian’s descendants; we had done it all. We had made every landing we had intended to, including Henderson, a UNESCO Biosphere Site and Ducie Island with its astounding resident bird populations of over five hundred thousand nesting seabirds.
Here are some excerpts from our fellow travelers on their thoughts of today:
“It was good to sleep in today, but the most exciting part was the numbers of sharks and birds!”
“So many highlights…not easy to pick one event, the dancers of Papeete, the Zodiacs being on the spot, an experience I never had before.”
“Pitcairn was fascinating, a microcosm, and people friendly and genuine.”
And in closing, if I may borrow the words of Charles Clerke, the favorite Lieutenant of Captain James Cook on his departure from Polynesia:
“’Tis with some reluctance I bid adieu to these happy isles, where I’ve spent very many happy days…In short, in my opinion, they are as pleasant and happy spots as the world contains.”
