Blogs from Oceans and Seas - page 3

Road Closures Congratulations to our friend Richard who started his job as Senior Editor for the St Helena Broadcasting (guarantee) Corporation Ltd (SHBC) yesterday. You will notice the title ‘Senior’, not ‘Junior’ nor ‘Chief’ not even “foreign’ or ‘Sport’. ‘Senior’ sounds pretty impressive, a post of some status within a complex hierarchy of editors that might make up this arm of the ‘Corporation Ltd.’ I spoke with Richard today (off the record, of course) about his new post and it was a little disappointing to read that he might, in fact, be the only editor within the organization. On the other hand, his title extends beyond the world of newsprint and on-line journalism (I will of course be keeping up to date with the stories, fictions and reports that make up the weekly potpourris that makes ... read more

Enjoying the sunny weather and clear beaches here at Ibiza. Its so peaceful that we dont even see more than 500 people during our stay. Its probably we come at the wrong time, though theres so many shops and restaurants, 90% of them arent open at this season. Really wana feel the real Ibiza and its Hippy market. We just feel like staying at a lonely planet here. "QUIET but PEACEFUL"... read more

For those people that think getting out of bed in the middle of the night to drive up a dormant volcano on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean jjst to watch the sunrise is a waste of time, here's one hell of an argument FOR! My endeavour with this posting is to give people the inspiration to experience Haleakala in all it's majesty, be it Sunrise OR Sunset. i do love the contrast of the Sunset photos posted. Thanks for doing that as it show people bothe ends of the spectrum. One must remember that you're at the mercy of Mother Nature and she can be a fickle friend.2005 was the first time we experienced the Sunrise up there, as part of a bike ride package. The sunrise was great, with the sun ... read more

Our early departure from Ushuaia heralded our earlier “Rounding of the Horn”. On this cruise; though we more or less sail pass Cape Horn out of Drake’s Passage, continuing in a south, south easterly direction on to Antarctica. On Sharon’s previous east-to-west cruise she did “round the horn” during daylight hours, and the captain traversed in a zigzag fashion several times from the Atlantic to the Pacific or back again, each time tooting the deep throated cruise ship horn. (Do cruise ships toot their horns?) We were scheduled to pass by Cape Horn just before midnight, so this event went largely unnoticed by passengers; indeed, Sharon and I were sound asleep by this time. The captain had predicted about ten-foot swells once we reached the unprotected waters below the horn, and we did notice some rolling ... read more

On this trip we visited many ports in a number of different countries. Cruise ships, we found out, only dock at nice terminal facilities in major ports like San Francisco. In most other ports, we were "parked" right into the mix of cargo ships, tankers, naval ships, and container ships of all sizes and from countries around the world. Steve took advantage of this opportunity with his camera gear. If you like ships, machines and naval weapons, check out this photo gallery!... read more

Broadcasting Exchange The grey cloud that hung over St Helena as the RMS anchored in James Bay rather reflected my mood returning to the island after a short but lovely Christmas trip to Blighty. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to return to the island that has been host to my geriatric gap-year but, rather, mixed feelings about returning only for a few weeks to the truncated project that I have led since August 2011. The professional project I have led has been (so far) a great success with school colleagues working so hard to change and improve their practice. The improvement has been so remarkable that we are expecting 70% of pupils to be level 4 and above in English and mathematics (Level 4 being the age related expectation) compared to 50% in 2012 and ... read more

Well, this is the last day of our cruise per se, a day at sea on the way to the port of Valpariso, Chile. We will have a day in Valpariso and then will head home from Santiago. We sleep in a bit. In the morning, we receive instructions on disembarkation procedures for tomorrow. As mentioned, we have booked a bus tour that will take us through Valpariso and the surrounding area and eventually deposit us at the airport in Santiago. Today we attend three lectures: the history of scurvy, bird ringing (or banding), and magic. The latter deserves some explanation. Devlin, the magician who entertained us previously, puts on an afternoon workshop on simple magic tricks or "actions," as he calls them. He shows us nine different tricks, demonstrating each one first and then explaining ... read more