Today was the day that the winds and clouds finally caught up with us. None of us were displeased with this, as we all knew we have been lucky with the weather thus far. The wind blew on the faces of our guests as we ventured forth like Vikings in the surf – though, not really. The conditions were not as bad as we initially thought, and National Geographic Explorer was only a few hundred meters from the dock.
Red Bay is home to one of the best-preserved marine archaeological sites on the planet. Between 1530 and the early 1700s, members of the Basque people ventured here to hunt whales. Whaling was a lucrative profession for centuries in the North Atlantic. This site is one of few that possesses highly studied shipwrecks, consisting of several whaling vessels, small boats called chalupas, and even large galleons. These submerged artifacts provide huge insights to the Basque people and how they managed to sail across the sea in search of whale oil. In 2013, Red Bay became a UNESCO heritage site to preserve and educate the world on this magnificent discovery. Red Bay is of monumental importance, literally.
