Page 42 - 2003 - Atlantic Islands

We did interrupt our reading (I’m now into Trollope’s “The Way We Live Now” and

Kay is enjoying “The Eyre Affair” (which does make her laugh out loud regularly) to

attend Meryl’s lecture “Birds on the Move.” She basically discussed the rigors of

migration for birds, using examples of long distance migrators as well as birds who

really only moved upslope and downslope. All birds move to follow either their food

or to get to their breeding grounds. There was considerable give and take in

discussing what are the causes of migration, how birds’ respiratory systems help

them in these long flights, how their fat distribution helps them with the stamina

required and the like. It was very interesting and, once again, it is easy to be struck by

how much is not known about something as familiar as the birds all around us.

A tour of the very modern and mechanized bridge was next on our agenda. We

joined Bill, Sage & Meryl on our visit. A nice officer explained as much to us as we

could probably have understood. We were truly amazed to find that there is not even

a small wheel to steer in docking situations. Even the Hanseatic had a tiny circle for

the pilot to use. We did get the daily longitude and latitude readings for all the days

since we have started so that we can track our actual path through the seas to

Ascension Island--4 ½ days from Cabo Verde!

The remainder of the afternoon was devoted to trying to sketch apples and grapes

for our assignment in MJ’s class. Neither of us was very satisfied with our progress

through all the 5 attempts we made. Some were better than others, but none were

really good. Now we are supposed to try to sketch something on the Island during

our visit but Kay told MJ she would be photographing the Island, not sketching it.

42