In the first instalment of the world cruise, I talked about the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. Which was quite intense with not to many sightings and with many rough sea days. The sight of land after six and a half days at sea was a very welcome sight indeed!
BERMUDA
It was a shame that, whilst coming closer to land, we also moved into dark grey clouds and in the end it started to rain. Not really the paradise arrival you would associate with Bermuda! However, with all the rough weather we’ve had, it was definitely still a welcome sight, with or without rain! Due to the bad weather we arrived 2 hours late, this meant that we only had three short hours to explore the Royal Naval Dockyard. The Royal Naval Dockyard used to be an important dock yard for the British Navy for over a 150 years since the 1800s. After this time the area transformed to what it is now, an area with some small shops, art galleries and a small shopping mall.
We were happy to stretch our legs and go on a proper walk rather than the rounds on the promenade deck. We walked past the small shops and art galleries, we did buy some souvenirs. Honestly, why is it that whenever you are in a new place you want to buy things, not just for one self but also for friends and family? We walked passed an old pink double decker bus, and It was a shame that we were here on a Sunday and delayed at that, which meant that there wasn’t really time to take a small ferry to the capital of Hamilton.
We were debating to go to the national museum of Bermuda, however on the same museum grounds there is an enclosure where they keep dolphins and where one can swim with the dolphins. As we thoroughly believe that the only way to see dolphins is at out in the wild at sea, we decided against visiting the museum. Besides having only three hours to spent ashore, it’s better to spend it outside, rather than rushing through a museum. There wasn’t that many wildlife around, we did see some chickens and beautiful roosters. The three hours went by way too quick, and before we knew it we were back on the ship sailing away for one more day at sea before we would reach the USA. We did survey our way out of Bermuda, but again didn’t see anything before the sunset. However we did again enjoy the turquoise blueness of the water and seeing the coral reefs. This definitely put a smile on my face.
One more day at sea.
The next day looked so promising, we had calm seas, hardly any wind and the sun was shining! What more could we want? Well lots of sightings! Unfortunately, we were over very deep waters, roughly 5000m deep, which normally means that the likelihood of animals are very slim, you might get the odd travelling animals or an elusive beaked whale.
Luckily we did see some animals, but with the calm conditions we had hoped for more. We had some very distant dolphins, a lone whale rising and sinking on the surface and two whales in the afternoon, which were too shy to show much of themselves. This happens more often than you think, you see a blow and know that there is a whale in the area, and then that is it. You then have no idea of what species it could have been. With experience you might be able to have an educated guess, however for the data set they will have to go down as unidentified whales. With the lack of sightings, this day felt like it lasted for ages. And we were really keen to get closer to America, as we would be entering the breeding grounds of the endangered North Atlantic right whale, and Charleston has a resident population of bottlenose dolphins so hopefully we would have some sightings tomorrow morning.
Sailing through the breeding ground of one of the most endangered whales.
The morning started with a survey until arrival in our first USA port; Charleston. We were very giddy with anticipation, as we were entering North Atlantic Right whale breeding territory. The North Atlantic Right Whales are critically endangered, and there are only around 356 individuals left, with an estimates of fewer than 70 reproductive females. The main threat for these whales are ship strike and entanglement in fishing gear. The closer we got to the coast of South Carolina, the slower we sailed. This is because around the coast of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, there is a seasonal speed restriction of 10 knots to help protect the North Atlantic right whale from ship strike. Ship strike is a problem for all cetaceans and marine animals, but mostly for our larger whale species.
Ship strike, also known as vessel strike, is the collision between any ship/boat with a marine animal. Ship strike is a quiet threat as most incidents, the vessel involved, is unaware of the collision, this is mainly the case with large vessels such as large container vessels. Therefor ship strike is an underreported threat to marine animals. You might think; ‘’don’t whales hear the ship coming?’’ Especially with larger vessels, the answer to this question is no. The main reason for this is something which we call the’’ bow null effect’’ . Where the length of the ships blocks the noise of the engine towards the front of the ship. The engine is positioned at the back of the ship, and with ships becoming larger and larger, the hull of the ship blocks the noise at the bow (front) of the ship. Whales can hear the ship coming, and will then come up at the surface, in the most quietest spot. Unfortunately, this, in many cases, is the bow of the ship, which is mostly likely to be fatal. Which is why there are restrictions in place along the east coast of America. Restrictions include; Speed restrictions, alternative shipping routes, having ships report whale sightings and implementing a ‘’no approach’’ safety zone around the whales.
This year at least 20 calves were born, however 1 has passed away and 4 other calves have gone missing and are presumed dead. Young calves are dependent of their mother for up to a year. Which means that mothers with calves will stay close to each other whilst the calf is still nursing. Through aerial surveys, the whales are being monitored throughout the breeding season. Right whales have callosities (marks) on their head, for each individual, the pattern is different this is how it’s possible to identify individuals.
That morning we didn’t see a single whale.
Exploring Charleston America:
The closer we got to the coast, however, the more bottlenose dolphins we started to see. Charleston has a resident population of around 300 bottlenose dolphins. Even in the estuary and port of Charleston the dolphins can be seen. During the sail into port we were seeing bottlenose dolphins popping up absolutely everywhere. They weren’t as welcoming as the UK bottlenose dolphins, who on occasion are attracted to ships and swim with them or at the very least show some acrobatics. These bottlenose dolphins simply ignored us and continued with their casual swim. It was fun for us and the guests on the ship though. Everywhere we looked every now and then a dolphin would break the surface. It definitely was a good exercise for the guest to get an eye for spotting dolphins and what it looks like once they break the surface. We also started seeing our first Pelicans!
After arrival at the port, the waiting started, I was really excited to go into the city and explore. However, this is the USA, and they are really strict with their border control. The whole border control process for cruise ship took around 7 hours in total. As every single person on the ship had to go through immigration, crew and passengers alike. The disembarkation process went from deck to deck. Our cabins were located on deck 3 and we had to wait 4 and a half hours before we could (finally) leave the ship. Whilst waiting I looked out over the city, my first American city. Charleston looked very pretty from the ship. I didn't see too many high buildings, as I might have expected when thinking of American cities, I noticed mostly older lower buildings. Once we finally went through customs and went into the city, we only had an hour of daylight left and made the most of it, by wondering around town and see all the highlights according to google. I wasn’t sure what to expect of Charleston, as I had never been to America and through media and movies you get an image in your mind, which might and proved to be a wrong impression.
Honestly, Charleston blew me away, it was absolutely stunning. All the colourful houses, Rainbow row was definitely a highlight. Loved the palm trees along the streets, but still it felt different then our European cities. Most standard objects that you can see seemed to be bigger like; large cars, very large signs, fire hydrants and of course the American flags, in other words it still felt very American, but with a history. After our walk around town sightseeing, we went to Target (supermarket) to get some snacks and other essentials for ship life. Here again we were amazed with the sizes, everything seemed bigger. After a trip to the supermarket, we googled for a (pizza) restaurant for dinner. Where we shared a massive pizza and some delicious meatballs. We didn’t have much time this evening to explore, luckily for us, this was an overnight port. Which meant that tomorrow morning we would still be here and have some more time to explore this wonderful city.
The next day we woke up before sunrise to make most of the morning as we had to be back on the ship before lunch time. It was a very cold morning, South Carolina should be quite a warm place to be, even in January. With average temperatures between 18 to 20 degrees Celsius. However, that day it was only 1 degree Celsius at sunrise, thanks to an Arctic blast. Quite frankly because we are on a world cruise which would mostly go to warm tropical places, I didn’t bring too many warm layers or a winter coat! So it was a very cold morning indeed, but a beautiful one! We walked around town, visited some shops and a market. Everyone in Charleston was extremely friendly, from the waiters at a coffee café to the border force.
After a lovely morning of exploring, we got back on the ship for lunch and to rest, as we would set sail around 13:00, which meant that we had to start working around 13:00. In the end we left around 45 minutes late. Upon leaving the port, and sailing through the bay we were immediately greeted once again with bottlenose dolphins, and pelicans! Pelicans are such amazing prehistoric looking birds, the pelicans we saw were brown pelicans. We headed out back to the ocean to cross to Florida. Again we would be going straight through North Atlantic right whale territory. After an hour and a half, with mostly seeing bottlenose dolphins, Nina saw a blow on the horizon, a V-shaped blow. Moving away from us to the north. The V-shaped blow is very characteristic for the right whale species. I got my binoculars up and also saw a V-shaped blow. Unfortunately as the animal moved north, and we were heading south, we never got to see the body of the animal, only the blow, so it had to go down as unidentified whale, but we both knew that this was most likely to be the North Atlantic right whale! No other whales were seen that afternoon. We did see some more bottlenose dolphins coming our way and they even started bow riding on our ship. It was a very cold afternoon, probably the coldest of the entire trip. For the most time we were on the observation deck on our own, hoping to see some more V-shaped blows.
Around 17:00 people started to join us once again on the freezing observation deck. We were heading for Port Canaveral, aka Kennedy Space Centre. And there was supposed to be a rocket launch from the centre that day, with a trajectory going northwards directly over our ship. Naturally lots of people joined us, unfortunately not to help and spot wildlife, but to see a rocket launch. We waited and waited. Until I decided to check the launch timer on the website of the Kennedy Space Centre, the launch was postponed to tomorrow. Very soon after I found out, there was an announcement about the postponed launch. People went back inside, not disappointed, but very excited! As tomorrow we would be IN Port Canaveral, almost right next to the space centre! Hopefully the weather conditions are good enough to see the rocket launch. After the excitement everyone went back inside, us included as the sun had nearly set and we were absolutely freezing. Thanks to the Arctic blast. However, we were heading inside with some dread. As we were going through the main calving area of the North Atlantic right whale through the darkness. We would much rather have sailed through during daylight hours, both for the safety of the animals and for us to get a chance to see the North Atlantic right whale in all its glory.
Cape Canaveral, Florida. The day we saw a rocket and four astronauts being launched into space!
The next morning we once again woke before sunrise for a quick breakfast and to go outside for a survey whilst coming in to port. Port Canaveral is mostly famous for being close to the Kennedy Space centre. When we got out on deck, that is exactly the first thing we saw; the Kennedy Space Centre! We saw large buildings, many thin towers and what not. We were a bit distracted by the space port. However, the moment some bottlenose dolphins jumped out of the water, we were immediately back on track, we are here to spot cetaceans, not looking at a space centre. Until a frigate bird flew over our the ship, I, at least, was distracted once more! Absolutely an amazing large bird, one I’ve always wanted to see, really magnificent. We couldn’t survey for long as we were in port within the hour. We prepared ourselves to get off the ship and take the shuttle bus to Cocoa beach, a small town just south of Port Canaveral.
Cocoa beach is mostly a surf town, with many surf and beach shops. I did get a very good sun hat here, which throughout the cruise would prove to be a great investment, especially in the very warm tropical areas. We wondered through the town ate some lunch and walked along the beach watching many birds on the beach. This filled most of our afternoon. The town wasn’t that interesting, and we were eager to get back to the ship, as something very special was most likely going to happen; a launch of a spaceship, with four astronauts onboard!
Borealis (ship) faced the Kennedy Space Center, so we stood, with many, many guests on the observation deck. Looking just to the right of the bow. We kept an eye on the countdown on the website. It looked like it really would be happening! Then: ‘’10, 9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1, lift off! ‘’ There they went; 4 astronauts from the SpaceX Ax 3 mission, on their way to the International Space Station! What an absolute amazing sight that was! I never knew that this was something I wanted to see, but if you ever find yourself close to a space port and there might be a launch, do check it out! It was quite exhilarating, the light, the sounds, seeing rocket disappear straight up into the clouds. 8 minutes after lift-off, the booster of the rocket came off and came back down to land on Earth. The sound of the landing, is a sonic boom, which could be felt in your entire body! Seeing the SpaceX Ax 3 mission go up into space was a highlight of today! Later in the evening in the dark we set sail once more through North Atlantic right whale territory towards Fort Lauderdale.
After all of yesterday's excitement, we woke up to the ship arriving in port 2 hours early. We were planning to wake up before sunrise and do another survey upon arrival, and to have another chance of spotting the North Atlantic right whale. Unfortunately this was not possible, this would have been our last chance. We waited to get on a shuttle bus to town, however, fort Lauderdale, let’s just say it was not for me. The shuttle bus dropped us of at a mall, and in the area around the mall there was not much to do. So after an hour or so, we got back on the bus, to eat lunch on the ship and take the afternoon of to rest. Which gave time to do some laundry and just relax, which is also very important if you work long days observing and talking with guests. Tomorrow we will be in Key West, which looks more promising than Fort Lauderdale.
Key West our final stop in continental USA, and what a last stop. I really loved Key West. The weather was amazing around 20 degrees Celsius, clear skies, and many palm trees. Plenty of colourful houses, and fun little shops. We left the ship just before 09:00, and walked the full length of the main street down (width of the island) towards the southernmost point of continental USA. This is marked by a large red and black buoy. There was a queue to take photos, which we joined and we took our photos and walked to a small pier to sit down for a bit and enjoy the view and the lovely weather. After this we walked the main street back up to the other side of the island to sunset pier, which has many colourful chairs and tables. However we found it too windy to have lunch there, so we walked back to the Hard Rock café , which at this point had walked past twice, for a brilliant lunch. Probably the best lemonade I ever had, with basil and Strawberry. The building of this hard rock café was pretty amazing, a beautiful old baby blue coloured building. After this amazing lunch we wondered around some more, tried some of the infamous key lime pie, which was quite nice. Whilst wondering over the island we got to a board walk around the marina and saw many pelicans and massive fish of the tarpon species. I took way too many photos of the Pelicans, but they are and remain a fascinating looking species of bird! After this it was already time to walk back to the ship and take some rest. We left Key West round 16:00 which meant we had some time to survey in the hope to see some dolphins, whilst sailing into the Caribbean sea. Unfortunately no dolphins were seen, but we did see many flying fish!
Next up are two sea days and then going through the Panama Canal! Which will be the next instalment of this blog series; Central America! From the Caribbean sea through Panama to Costa Rica and Mexico! Expect, stormy seas, very hot weather and monkeys!
Sources:
Illustration and information on North Atlantic Right Whale: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/north-atlantic-right-whale
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