Our First Glimpses of Ireland

Brain cancer is...

 ...off the Irish coast.

(Updated 5:30 pm.) 

This morning the view at breakfast was of the Skellig Islands.  "Skellig" means "rock" in Gaelic, which makes sense because the Skelligs are uninhabited rocky isles known for their bird life. We circled them a few times to get some great views.  We saw thousands of gannets, who were working hard to build their nests of seaweed.  You can see them, above.  We also saw some puffins (phew!).
 

The largest Skellig has a 12-century, abandoned monastery on it.

We made port at Valentia Island after lunch and wandered Knightstown on our own.  So this is Ireland!

A few  Knightstown fun facts:

1. Knightstown is the origination point of the first transatlantic cable.  It connected Europe with North America (Newfoundland) for the first time ever.  (Darrell is sitting just a short distance from the actual point, above.)
2. Knightstown is the home of an (the?) Altazamuth Stone. People have long been able to determine latitude for navigation purposes, but calculating longitude was much more difficult.  (And not estimating it well led to many tragedies, including a massive wreck in the Scilly Islands, which we mention in our Scilly Isles post.)  It wasn't until the mid 1800s that an experiment --using an instrument called an altazamuth confirmed lines of longitude.  The altazamuth was in Greenwich; one of the points in the experiment was here in Knightstown.
3. Also near Knightstown, but not quite walkable for us today, is a set of tetrapod tracks, laid down about 385 million years ago when a tetrapod (four-footed creature) walked out of the ocean onto land.  It's taken as some of the earliest evidence that life began in the seas and then walked ashore.

The world is an amazing place!

A Note on Our Expedition Cruise

Our Alaska cruise on Sillversea was a traditional cruise.  It was very elegant, and life onboard was the centerpiece of the experience in many ways.  This cruise is also a Silversea voyage, so it has the same delicious offerings and great service.  But life onboard is definitely a backdrop for the real focus:  Seeing, learning about, and appreciating the world's amazing places.

I would say that Darrell and I are slightly younger than the median age on this ship, and yet everyone aboard is out for the adventure, doing these walks, soaking it all in.   It's very much a shared adventure.

There are several naturalists on board.  When we passed the Skelligs Nigel (of course a birder's name should be Nigel) was there to identify birds and explain their behaviors.

Whenever take an expedition, one of the naturalists accompanies us and adds (when appropriate) to what the local guide has to say. 

We are loving the microphone technology they use.  The local guide wears a mic that transmits to the receivers we wear around our necks.  We use earpieces to hear the guide's narration.  It's great because it enables the guide to speak at regular volume, and we can wander a bit, looking at things of interest, and still hear the guide.  Darrell estimates the range to be 100 yards.

One more thing about our receivers:  Because lots of groups go out at the same time, we need to set our frequency to match our guide and not someone else's.  We do that by scanning a color code with our receivers.  We aren't sure what information is being scanned, which makes it even cooler. 

Another difference is that every day there is a recap/precap where members of the Expedition Staff answer questions about what we've seen that day and give us briefings of what's next. 

"Expedition" also means "zodiac cruising."  Zodiacs are motorized rubber rafts that hold about 8 passengers.  They go out and cruise for up close sightings...like puffin hunting.

Darrell is once again a super hero in pushing the "comfort zone" envelope by climbing aboard the Zodiacs to get to shore.  (Keeping Optune dry is an important consideration for us, as you know.) I think the remainder of the landings have us taking Zodiacs ashore.  Here he is on the way to shore today.

(Update:  The Zodiac ride back to our ship was a little hairy today.  Darrell gets special props for agreeing to go back out on one with me tomorrow to go ashore at Galway.)  

Rock on, super hero Explorer Darrell.  

Happy Saturday, Team D.  We wish you awesome adventures!