Friday – The Main Event

The whole ship was up early today, for what can only described as ‘The Main Event’. We set the alarm for 7:30am, had finished breakfast and was up on the top deck with the milling throng, by 8:30am.

As you can imagine, the anticipation was quite intense. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t playing ball. The captain explained over the PA that he was monitoring local conditions very carefully, and would be changing course often, to increase the chances of catching a break in the clouds at the right time. He had an impossible task, though, and things really weren’t looking good. At 8:45am, our resident astronomer came over the PA to tell us that we were at the point of ‘First Contact’, where the moon just starts eating into the orb of the sun. Everybody dutifully donned their ‘Solar Eclipse Specs’, and gazed to the heavens in the hope of seeing something. And there it was; it took a moment of two to get accustomed to the glasses, but the sun clearly had a dent in it… and then it was gone again.

For the next hour, as the moon slowly ate up the sun, the wind howled about the ironically-named ‘Sun Deck’ and folks, wrapped-up in their heaviest-duty winter gear, tried desperately to hold on to their specs and their cameras, relishing every break in the clouds, however sparse they were. As the moment of totality approached, the dark clouds rolled menacingly across the ocean, and all hope seemed to fade; despite the occasional glimpse of the now slither-like sun, most people seemed to accept the fact that we were going to have to wait another 25 years for the privilege… and then… just as the sun disappeared and the light began to dip… at 9:45am…. against all hope… a great cheer went up from the gathered company… for there it was in all it’s glory…..

Okay; so it wasn’t the clear skies that we’d all hoped for, but I’m very happy with the photo I managed to capture. It was all over in 2 minutes, and, other than hanging around for a while to watch the moon slip off to the left of the sun, everyone was chilled to the bone and ready to get back indoors, and fight over the tea station.

The rough seas continued on into my lesson on puddles (which ran late because of a lecture), and with waves crashing over the Lookout’s windows, numbers soon dwindled to about 9 people – dropping like flies they were…

By late afternoon, the swell had diminshed, the sun was out and the skies were a beautiful clear blue (typical…). I’ve spent most of the afternoon restoring Tracey’s laptop after a major IT failure bricked it last night…

It’s been an interesting day!