Solar Eclipse Path, 70 miles South of Tahiti 11 Jul 2010 18.7599S 149.1819W
We ended up with perfect weather and visibility, and Frank monitored and adjusted sails all night to get us directly under the center of the path. I truly had no idea how much more impressive a full eclipse would be compared to the partials I’d seen in the past. The three or so minutes of totality were completely spellbinding. The lighting leading up to the eclipse got very eerie with strange crescent shaped shadows all over the cockpit, then very suddenly, the world did in fact go dark, like late dusk or early dawn, with a glowing yellow horizon in all directions. Stars and planets were visible overhead, and the eclipse itself looked like someone was drilling a perfectly round hole in the sky with a circular laser. A puffy cloud passed in front for one of the three or so minutes, but it did not obscure our visibility, instead it made a burst of iridescent colors around the eclipse. Then as suddenly as it all started, a sunbeam exploded us back into a glowing yellow daylight. I truly had the sense that angels were watching down on us, and had come to save us from the sudden darkness.
The entire event lasted almost 3 hours, I could tell a lot more – the kid’s excitement, images of them looking out at the sun and sea wearing the welding helmet, playing with the crescent shadows, projecting dancing crescents with the binoculars (hard to hold binos still on the boat), accounts of historical tricks early explorers used the eclipse for, and cool details Marc Googled for us – but I sprained my finger yesterday, rushing to get a bucket of water to help Frank clean up fish blood from a 4′ Mahi Mahi we caught. A wave came and tried to steal the bucket, almost took the end of my left index finger too! La Garce! The bucket looks more bent than my finger though, so I think I’ll be typing faster again soon.
The planet officially has 4 new coronaphiles! Next one Australia 2012? Hmmm that’s not too far off, nor too far away from here. I’m so glad we didn’t let cabin fever get the better of us, and I’m glad we were able to slow Silver Lining down a bit; she was a little too eager to be leaping and hopping on the moon’s shadow, now I know why!
xoxomo