Todays’ rough conditions brought a distance sailed of 137nm on the open waters of the South Atlantic, now over 5000m in depth. But checking the charts we can see that we are approaching a singularity in the deep ocean. 400nm away from land and about 300nm from the shallow Argentinean continental shelf a Seamount rise from the abyssal plains to just about 126m below the surface. Those underwater mountains represent a break on the flow of the deep water currents, pushing them towards the surface along their flanks, enriching the shallow waters with their nutrients.
Might be for that reason that we experienced an increase on the birdlife flying around the ship. Indeed, as we gain distance southwards and get closer to this seamount, soon we find ourselves in colder waters (13.5º C recorded at midday), windier conditions and rougher seas, all together with the spectacular increase on the diversity of birds spotted.
Comments
Much love to my son!
Maria graafsma | 21-11-2018 19:20 uur
Seasickness pronkie?
Richard | 21-11-2018 10:51 uur