Page 94 - 2003 - Atlantic Islands
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intervals when we realized that we would still be at supper. At 9:30 we were tired of

               reading since holding your book steady enough to see the letters does grow wearying


               on  a  ship  that  is  bouncing  like  a  tennis  ball.  So  we  elected  to  watch  the  NOVA

               program  on  Longitude  based  on  Dava  Sobel’s  book  which  we  had  both  read.  The

               story of John Harrison’s 40+ year struggle to solve the problem of longitude at sea is

               still a gripping one and it was well done by NOVA.




               After the program, we decided to get into the never-still beds and try to read a little

               longer before going to sleep. Tomorrow we should wake up at Tristan da Cunha.




               TRISTAN DA CUNHA


               Area Map

               Local Map

               We were not quite at Tristan when we woke up at 6:45 AM but at 7 John came on

               and told us we were within about 30-45 minutes of the island. We went ahead and

               got  dressed  for  breakfast  since  it  was  obvious  that  there  would  not  be  an  8  AM


               embarkation. So we considered the question of which place is the remotest in the

               inhabited world. Both St. Helena and Tristan claim that appellation and both seem to

               have  good  reasons  to  do  so,  but  it  seemed  to  us  that  Tristan  probably  has  the

               strongest evidence.          Only 300 people live here and in 1961 when all had to be

               evacuated from the island due to volcanic activity, all but 4 elected to return to the


               island 2 years later after it had been determined that it was safe for them to do so.

               The mileage between St. Helena and Tristan is 1343 miles.









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