Sailing into Darwin Bay, the old sunken caldera of Genovesa Island filled with seawater, is always an event. The entrance of this caldera is very narrow. Ships do not enter in the middle of the wide opening but have to enter on one side of it, the deepest, which is only a bit over 24 feet deep! Polaris has a shallow draught of 4.3m, or a bit over 14 feet, not much space to play around with if there are big waves! Early this morning some guests were up at the bridge to follow the depth finder and see the line from about 75m (247ft) go sharply up to the 24 feet and then suddenly drop down. There is no more indication afterwards, the screen is all blue again, as inside the caldera it is so deep (over 300ft), the depth sonar cannot measure it. The ship also has to line up with some navigation signs on land, visible in the picture on the right side. When sailing out of the caldera, which has to be done by daylight, I find it always fun to watch the stern suddenly swing to the left towards these signs, and then make another big swing to the right side, once were out of the opening. Thanks to our new splashcam, which our Hotel Manager Erasmo set up at the bridge by the depth sonar, lots of guests in the lounge could follow these changes.
During or after sailing out we could enjoy a drink up on the Sky Deck, watching sunset. A beautiful ending of a wonderful day in the "Islands Lost in Time" (title of a book by Tui De Roy).
