Noon Location: N 30º 38′ 48.80″ – W 116º 54′ 39.83″

Normal morning. Seas still rockin’ and arollin’ with swells in the 14-20 foot range. Toward the end of my walk this morning this Norwegian ship passed heading south.

After a quick shower Cheryl threw in a load of laundry and we headed up to breakfast. We got back in time to throw the clothes in the dryer, but didn’t leave enough time to finish their cycle before the 9:30 lecture so we hung (hanged?) out in our room and watched the lecture on simulcast.

We are seeing a turnover of lecturers in LA tomorrow so they are doing their final wrap-ups. This one talked about achievements and failures in clandestine operations that have had a direct impact on history. He included several clips of President Biden’s address to the CIA on their 75th anniversary last year.

The clothes having reached the proper level of dryness we stashed them in drawers and on hangers and headed down to the Theatre for Naturalist Robin Petch’s wrap-up – a compilation of wildlife sitings from Barcelona (where he joined this ship) to today.

It’s truly amazing how much wildlife you can see if you stop and take the time to watch.

Then it was time for lunch.

Following lunch I grabbed the GoPro and started a project to film the ship. This will take some time as I will try to minimize the number of people I capture in the shots. I’ve got the first secton filmed and will edit it, perhaps tomorrow, and get it posted.

Afternoon consisted of catching up on email and such (with time out for a nap).

6:30 saw us back in the theatre for another of Russell Lee’s ‘Great Stories’.

Essentially it was a showdown between Isaac Newton and Rene Descartes about the shape of the earth. If Newton was right the earth would be shaped like a grapefruit (wider at the equator) – and the law of gravity would be supported. If Descartes was right the earth would be shaped like an egg – and the church would be right in claiming that the universe was fixed and unchanging.

Providing the proof was left to a French expedition to South America to determine the distance between one degree of latitude near the equator (to compare to the distance between one degree of latitude in northern Europe). The story is how this 4 year expedition lasted 9 years. The whole adventure was a cluster of errors. But the eventually (sad to say because this was a French expedition) proved Newton right.

The rest of the story is that we can thank this debacle for: The development of rubber, Discovery of the tree from which we get Quinine (to treat malaria and make Gin and Tonic with), Realization of the need for a universal system of measurement that resulted in the development of the Metric system, Inspiration explorers like Humbolt and Darwin, and (in a roundabout way) the name of the country Equador.

Brain Busters was fun. Not especially productive, but fun.

Thus ends the last sea day of this stretch. Tomorrow is LA where we say good bye to those friends who only booked the first leg of this journey (Ft. Lauderdale to Los Angeles) and welcome new friends who booked the Los Angeles to London part. It will be an interesting day.

Till then, TTFN, R