Cruising the Arafura Sea
Sunrise and sunset, daily activities, however they are something else when you are sailing. They are nearly always beautiful. Waking up and looking out the sliding glass door, every day is nearly a aw inspiring event. The dark blue sea, not yet turned the warm blue sea, is topped with a bright yellow-orange illuminated sky filled with wispy clouds.
Sometimes the clouds are dark and ominous. Those clouds attempt to hide the bright colors of morning, but often fail. Most often though they are just light wisps floating gently on the colors of morning. At night, the colors return. Now the bright blue sky grows darker and the evening color show begins. The sea loses its bright color and turns a deep blue. All the while the sun lowers itself over the horizon in a color kaleidoscope of yellows and oranges.
It is difficult to missing this morning and evening show. They are truly the highlights of the day.
Today we are somewhen most of you will have never heard of. We are cruising the Arafura Sea (or Arafuru Sea). This shallow sea, 50 – 80 meters in most places, lies west of the Pacific Ocean, overlying the continental shelf between Australia and Western New Guinea (also called Papua).
Under the sea lies the Arafura Shelf. When sea levels were low during the last glacial maximum, the Arafura Shelf, the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Torres Strait formed a large, flat, land bridge that connected Australia and New Guinea and eased the migration of humans from Asia into Australia. The combined landmass formed the continent of Sahul.
The Arafura Sea is a rich fishery resource, particularly for shrimp and fish. Economically important species include Barramundi, grouper, Penaeid shrimp, and Nemipteridae fishes, among others. At a time when many marine ecosystems and fish stocks around the world are diminished or collapsing, the Arafura Sea stands out as among the richest marine fisheries on Earth. Like else where the natural resources of the Arafura are under increased pressure from illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing activities.
The olestra episode still has me a bit under the weather this morning. Got up and worked on the Blog, then woke Mary up at 7:30 and went for a walk and breakfast. Afterwards I went back to bed and Mary went to the 9:30 Speaker Series by Brian Unger on “Why the South China Sea is the Greatest Sea on Earth.”
It had gone noon by the time I regained consciousness. Mary was reading. We went to the pool grill for lunch and then returned to the room. We watched the morning Speaker Series on the TV while we rested.
Brian made so really good arguments as to why the South China Sea is the best in the world. He argues that the diversity of food, people and culture make it a fascinating place to visit. The geopolitics of of the area help to keep in all interesting. Seems everyone is claiming most every landmass in the region. China is literally building islands and putting military bases on them to mark their claim.
The Seven Seas Society had another social tonight at 18:00. The first part was yet another Amway Session. This was followed by some really great singing and dancing. Sufficiently jazzed up we headed up to Setta Mari for dinner.
After dinner I went and had a cigar in the Connoisseur Lounge. There I met and talked with one of the officers, Yeman. He is from Bulgaria. He seemed very unimpressed about our wanting to visit Bulgaria. In fact, he said there was nothing to see there.
We talked a bit and told him what I knew of Bulgaria. Which isn’t much more than one can get out of a Rick Steve’s travel video. He seemed amazed that I knew so much. We went on talking for about an hour. I think we would have been happy to go on talking about he country where there was nothing for the rest of the night, but it was now past my bed time. He walked me to the elevator, rode up to the 9th floor where I got out. I almost expected him to walk me to my door. All the while telling me about where to go and what to visit in Bulgaria.
Another day circling the Arafura Sea tomorrow. Sunday we will dock in Darwin.
Buonanotte e Ciao, Enrico e Maria
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