At Sea
Wow! What a fantastic few days we have had in the Marquesas Islands. Being one of the only ships that visits these remote islands every year, we, the guests of National Geographic Endeavour, began to understand why the first visitors to the islands never wanted to leave once they arrived here; we have been treated with unending warmth, affection, and generosity for the last three days. So now, as we head south back towards the Tuomotu Islands of French Polynesia, we look back with a sense of longing and perhaps a bit of melancholy.
Smoothly sailing across the waters of the Pacific, our mindset turns towards the body of water we are moving through (with the help of some poignant lectures by our natural history staff). The Pacific Ocean (from the Latin name Mare Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan) is the world's largest and deepest body of water. It encompasses a third of the Earth's surface, having an area of 69.4 million square miles — significantly larger than Earth's entire landmass, with room for another Africa to spare. An extremely diverse body of water ranging from pole to pole, the water temperatures vary from the freezing point of sea water, 28ºF, to the warm equatorial waters measuring 84°F.
We have been exploring below the Pacific’s azure waters for the last two weeks, using scuba, snorkeling, and Glass Bottom Boating to reveal only a portion of what this vast body of water has to offer. Our findings have been astounding, from bright corals or boulder strewn bottoms that hide delicate shrimp, to the spine shivering view of a Great Hammerhead Shark. Pictured here are some of our intrepid scuba divers, and a Color Variation of the Masked Moray Eel with a Blue Streak Cleaner Wrasse. This Moray can grow to 2 and a half feet, and has been known to be aggressive towards divers; but don’t be alarmed if you come upon one with its mouth gaping, this is simply the way these animals breathe.
The Pacific contains about 25,000 islands (more than the total number in the rest of the world's oceans combined), the majority of which are found south of the equator, and we have been fortunate to visit some of the most magnificent on this fantastic journey through South Pacific.
Wow! What a fantastic few days we have had in the Marquesas Islands. Being one of the only ships that visits these remote islands every year, we, the guests of National Geographic Endeavour, began to understand why the first visitors to the islands never wanted to leave once they arrived here; we have been treated with unending warmth, affection, and generosity for the last three days. So now, as we head south back towards the Tuomotu Islands of French Polynesia, we look back with a sense of longing and perhaps a bit of melancholy.
Smoothly sailing across the waters of the Pacific, our mindset turns towards the body of water we are moving through (with the help of some poignant lectures by our natural history staff). The Pacific Ocean (from the Latin name Mare Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan) is the world's largest and deepest body of water. It encompasses a third of the Earth's surface, having an area of 69.4 million square miles — significantly larger than Earth's entire landmass, with room for another Africa to spare. An extremely diverse body of water ranging from pole to pole, the water temperatures vary from the freezing point of sea water, 28ºF, to the warm equatorial waters measuring 84°F.
We have been exploring below the Pacific’s azure waters for the last two weeks, using scuba, snorkeling, and Glass Bottom Boating to reveal only a portion of what this vast body of water has to offer. Our findings have been astounding, from bright corals or boulder strewn bottoms that hide delicate shrimp, to the spine shivering view of a Great Hammerhead Shark. Pictured here are some of our intrepid scuba divers, and a Color Variation of the Masked Moray Eel with a Blue Streak Cleaner Wrasse. This Moray can grow to 2 and a half feet, and has been known to be aggressive towards divers; but don’t be alarmed if you come upon one with its mouth gaping, this is simply the way these animals breathe.
The Pacific contains about 25,000 islands (more than the total number in the rest of the world's oceans combined), the majority of which are found south of the equator, and we have been fortunate to visit some of the most magnificent on this fantastic journey through South Pacific.
