At Sea
This morning was an opportunity for everyone to sleep in a little, after several busy days spent exploring one of the most culturally and historically rich areas of the world. The Baltic Sea is a small yet incredibly important waterway that acts as a bridge between nine nations, of which eight will be visited on this trip.
The unparalleled strategic importance of this sea has always placed it at the centre-stage of the unfurling drama of the history of North-eastern Europe, witness to titanic power struggles between great empires for access to all-important trade routes, along which items as diverse as the famous Baltic amber (which still abounds in the region to this day), fish, furs, timber, flax and mining products have travelled over the centuries.
In many ways, however, this sea is more like a lake: it is enclosed and connected to the North Sea by just a narrow channel between Denmark and Sweden, the Skagerrak. In addition to this, the high precipitation in the area causes rivers and streams to pour freshwater into the sea, which as a result has salinity levels of just 7 parts per thousand (ppt) as opposed to normal sea salt levels of 34-36 ppt! The truth to this statement was tested by a handful of hardy souls that decided to brave the chill of the water (only about 65 degrees Fahrenheit despite being August) by jumping in the National Geographic Endeavour deck pool that had been filled with Baltic water early this morning.
We had great cruising conditions, with warm, sunny weather and calm seas, and we all enjoyed the opportunity to be able to catch up with reading and journals, as well as expand our knowledge of the area during a series of presentations by the ship's staff. We learned about the geological origins of the Baltic Sea, the earliest traders of the area: the Vikings, and about that all-important trading item, which many of us traded our modern day currency for in the last couple of days: amber.
It was also a great opportunity to visit our captain and officers on the bridge and learn a little about the navigational instruments that get us where we want to go, and marvel at yet another oddity of this unusual sea: its shallowness! The Baltic is 150m at its deepest point, and today the greatest depths shown by our depth sounder was 49.9m - and the shallowest point was just over 3m!
We retire tonight with replenished energies and filled with anticipation at many more exciting days to come. On a personal note, this is a particularly special trip for me, as I have the opportunity to share it with my loved ones: husband Juan Carlos and baby daughter Amelia, on her first trip at sea, in her mother's footsteps, at just nine months!
This morning was an opportunity for everyone to sleep in a little, after several busy days spent exploring one of the most culturally and historically rich areas of the world. The Baltic Sea is a small yet incredibly important waterway that acts as a bridge between nine nations, of which eight will be visited on this trip.
The unparalleled strategic importance of this sea has always placed it at the centre-stage of the unfurling drama of the history of North-eastern Europe, witness to titanic power struggles between great empires for access to all-important trade routes, along which items as diverse as the famous Baltic amber (which still abounds in the region to this day), fish, furs, timber, flax and mining products have travelled over the centuries.
In many ways, however, this sea is more like a lake: it is enclosed and connected to the North Sea by just a narrow channel between Denmark and Sweden, the Skagerrak. In addition to this, the high precipitation in the area causes rivers and streams to pour freshwater into the sea, which as a result has salinity levels of just 7 parts per thousand (ppt) as opposed to normal sea salt levels of 34-36 ppt! The truth to this statement was tested by a handful of hardy souls that decided to brave the chill of the water (only about 65 degrees Fahrenheit despite being August) by jumping in the National Geographic Endeavour deck pool that had been filled with Baltic water early this morning.
We had great cruising conditions, with warm, sunny weather and calm seas, and we all enjoyed the opportunity to be able to catch up with reading and journals, as well as expand our knowledge of the area during a series of presentations by the ship's staff. We learned about the geological origins of the Baltic Sea, the earliest traders of the area: the Vikings, and about that all-important trading item, which many of us traded our modern day currency for in the last couple of days: amber.
It was also a great opportunity to visit our captain and officers on the bridge and learn a little about the navigational instruments that get us where we want to go, and marvel at yet another oddity of this unusual sea: its shallowness! The Baltic is 150m at its deepest point, and today the greatest depths shown by our depth sounder was 49.9m - and the shallowest point was just over 3m!
We retire tonight with replenished energies and filled with anticipation at many more exciting days to come. On a personal note, this is a particularly special trip for me, as I have the opportunity to share it with my loved ones: husband Juan Carlos and baby daughter Amelia, on her first trip at sea, in her mother's footsteps, at just nine months!
