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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