Noon Position: N 16º 13′ 40.63″ – W 157º 05′ 22.00″
Heading: 169º, Speed: 17 knots
Having left Hawaii behind we’re headed almost due south to Bora Bora. We’re on a crossing of 5 sea days and should arrive at 11:00 on Saturday.
There was a beautiful sunrise from deck 2 this morning, but I promised so no photos.
We’re back to the sea day schedule so the first lecture was at 9:30.
After that we hung around and read until:
This was a fascinating in-depth look at the trade-routes established between the various islands (and south America) prior to the arrival of European explorers. Dr. Matisoo-Smith wrote her PhD dissertation on the spread of mDNA thruout the region. Because of the politics involved in obtaining DNA from human remains she worked with a particular species of rat that was not indigenous to any island in the area and was used by explorers as a significant food source. Her work was eventually broadened to include mDNA from chickens and pigs. A result of this work (both by her and others) has been a fairly accurate picture and timeline of expansion thru the area.
One notable point was the size of Polynesia:
Within this triangle of widely separated islands first explorers, then settlers, then traders spread out to populate the region. One of the last areas of expansion was to Hawaii. The most interesting part of her talk was the proof that there was trade between Easter Island and Chile. Chicken bones that have DNA showing them to be a Malaysian variety have been found in Chile. While Squash and Gourds from South America made their way thru Easter Island to other Polynesian islands.
All of which prepared us for lunch.
Today was fish taco day on the terrace.
After lunch (and a short break to check email, do a bit of business, and such) we met Denny and Pat from our trivia team to wile away the afternoon playing:
At 4:15 we presented ourselves (and our passports) to the friendly folk from the purser’s staff. They are keeping the passports to use for clearance at the next couple of ports.
Then it was relaxing/reading/warming our feet time until dinner.
BBB didn’t start well – we missed the first 4 questions. But our eventual score 15 of 23 was good enough for second place.
Returning to the stateroom we took the highlighter to tomorrow’s schedule and worked on the blog.
So that’s life at sea – probably won’t change much over the next week. But it’s a big ocean.
We’ll check in tomorrow.
Nite all, R
One of our lectures talked about a plastic recovery program in the North Atlantic gyre – this plastic trash circle is about the size of TEXAS. Two boats with a long, long net between them (only goes down about 4 feet so fish can escape under it) slowly move in parallel across a swatch of ocean – the net collects the floating plastic and the wake of the boats slowly move the pieces down to a big sock-like net container floating in between the boats at the very back of the U-shaped net. When it’s full they haul it aboard a boat that is especially equipped to drag the whole “trash sock” aboard without spilling it back into the ocean and take it back to land for permanent disposal. I was amazed to hear this good news about cleaning up our planet!
Ok 100% this woman has worked with colleagues in my department. I just have to find the connection. But very similar to what they do. And _fascinating_. Also that fish picture is a crack up
You know, Rrrrrrrrrrrrr, promises are meant to be broken. It’s 15 degrees here this morning. A nice sunrise picture where it’s warm would be welcomed!