Thursday June 20, 2024 – At Sea on route to La Coruña
Another welcome day at sea with interesting lectures. First was Philip Price – the Marine Biologist talking about – Ocean Creatures from Another World. The depth of the oceans varies and thus the sunlight that penetrates to the different depths varies. It was thought that life only can exist where there is at least some sort of light, but this was disproved as humans and machines were built that can tolerate the pressure of certain depths. The upper part of the ocean where there is sunlight goes down to about 200 meters and is called the Epipelagic or Sunlight zone. From 200 to 1,000 meters down is known as the Mesopelagic or Twilight Zone; from 1,000 to 4,000 meters it is known as the Bathypelagic or Midnight Zone; from 4,000 to 6,000 meters it is known as the Abyssopelagic Zone or The Abyss; and from 6,000 to 11,000 meters is known as the Hadal or Trench zone of which the deepest is the Mariana Trench in the Western Pacific about 200 kilometers to the east of the Mariana Islands. It is crescent shaped 2,550 kilometers long by 69 kilometers wide and about 11,000 meters deep which is about 2 kilometers deeper than Mount Everest is above sea level and at it’s bottom the pressure is nearly 16,000 pounds per square inch or 1,080 times surface atmospheric pressure. As of 2022, only 22 descents with people and 7 by machines alone have been made to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the first being on January 23, 1960 with Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard in the US Navy owned Bathyscape called Trieste. Of note, the Titanic film director James Cameron did it in March 2012 in the Deep-sea Challenger. After covering some basic facts about the ocean, he went on to discuss various animals, the first of which is the Blue Whale, which is the largest animal that has ever existed weighing 200 tons and 30 meters (100 feet) long, much larger than the Tyrannosaurus Rex (12 meters long), even an Elephant would fit in it’s mouth with space to spare. Other animals discussed were Krill (zooplankton) which is the small shrimp like creature that is the bottom of the food chain (other than phytoplankton) and millions are eaten by the blue whale each day. The others include the Blob Fish (appearing like a bib blob with enormous mouth), Mega-Mouth Shark, the Goblin Shark with it’s strange proboscis or snout, the Giant Oarfish like an eel which is longer than 20 people side by side holding it, the Giant Squid, the Vampire Squid, the Angler Fish, the Coelacanth, and others.
Next the Egyptologist – Vivianne Rowan – spoke on “She who would be king” – Ozymandias king of kings and the Iron Lady of Ancient Egypt Queen Mata-Ka-Ra Hatshepsut (1473-1458 BCE) wife of Pharaoh Thutmose II who was depicted with a king’s false beard and other such pharaonic regalia so as to appear like other (male) Pharaohs. During her reign (or co-reign with her child, aged 2 when he was supposed to assume the Pharaoh role (Thutmose III – Reign 1479 to 1425 BCE), she built many structures and temples as it was a peaceful and prosperous time. Vivianne also spoke of the great pharaoh Ramses II (born 1303 and ruled from 1279 to his death in 1213 BCE). These two are considered the greatest rulers of Ancient Egypt.
Finally the historian Philip St. Lawrence – To Vigo and Coruña – The Perilous Retreat which is one of the three greatest retreats in British history, with thousands of men dying or left to die if too ill to continue, pursued by the French in 1808 / 1809.
The evening show was the Vietnamese Australian – Van-Anh Nguyen a Virtuoso Piano Player who was superb. She, her parents and brother & sister are from Vietnam but toured Australia as she called them – “The Vietnamese Von Trapp’s”. All of the family make their living from music and all play at least two instruments. She plays piano and cello and gave her first performance in the Sydney Opera house at the age of 13. She started learning piano at just over a year old. She is truly gifted and an amazing artist.
Roger & Anne Travels 