Blogs from Oceans and Seas - page 178

The Bay of Biscay is named (for English speakers) after Biscay on the northern Spanish coast, probably standing for the Western Basque Districts (Biscay up to the early 19th century). Its name in other languages is: Asturian: Golfu de Biscaya, Basque: Bizkaiko Golkoa,. Breton: Pleg-mor Gwaskogn, French: Golfe de Gascogne (named after Gascony), Galician: Golfo de Biscaia, Gascon Occitan: Golf de Gasconha, Spanish: Golfo de Vizcaya. The Continental Shelf extends far into the bay, resulting shallow waters in many areas and thus the rough seas for which the region is known. Large storms occur in the bay, especially during the winter months. The Bay of Biscay is home to some of the Atlantic's fiercest weather and abnormally high waves occur here. Up until recent years it was a regular occurrence for merchant vessels ... read more

An important change happened as we started the next leg of our voyage. We had all been nothing more than adventurous tourists who had chosen an interesting and somewhat unique way to see the sights of Antarctica and South Georgia. It is true that we had learned a lot about sailing a tall ship and we had definitely had some amazing adventures that fall well outside of the realm of a cruise ship, but it wasn’t until we had left South Georgia in our wake that we stopped being tourists and became sailors. We were no longer on a sightseeing trip, we were on a sailing voyage and we had nearly three thousand nautical miles of some of the stormiest oceans in the world ahead of us. More than fourteen hundred nautical miles separated us ... read more

Geo: 19.3022, -81.3857Had the same ol' breakfast as yesterday ... and the day before ... and the day before that ... I feel like Bill Murray in "Groundhoug Day". Stuck in a loop, staring at the same plate of runny eggs, under-ripe fruit, and fatty bacon. What kind of life would that be, waking up everyday for the rest of your life, eating the same breakfast on the Carnival Valor? I guess it could be pretty great if you woke up every day and saw the SNG! Off to Grand Cayman - saw Zahir, Tazmin, Hur, and the Chinese lady/daughter on the tender to shore. Hoping to do a beginner's scuba tour, but there weren't any being offered at the port. The best chance was to take a taxi to the beach and try there. Hopped ... read more

Geo: 21.462, -71.1365... read more

Geo: 18.3419, -64.9307... read more