On our way at last! We left Australia last night and cruised out through one of the big channels in the Great Barrier Reef, into the Coral Sea, bound for New Guinea. And what a pleasant surprise we found on these tropical waters today! Cyclone Ita has only just left the region, but the seas are calm, the winds gentle and the sky full of sunshine and puffy white clouds.
This easy day at sea was the perfect setting for beginning the educational side of our expedition. Richard White began the morning with a presentation on the seabirds of the region, which was followed by some tips for using our binoculars and a good chance to put it all to use, watching birds from the aft deck. Next up was an introduction to Expedition Photography and breakouts into small groups for hands-on instruction from the photo team.
After a big lunch on deck and a pleasant rest afterward we gathered again to prepare for the adventures ahead with briefings on riding the Zodiacs to remote beaches and snorkeling on the reefs nearby. And the afternoon concluded with the highlight of day, a presentation from Ron Leiditch on the opening of the Pacific Theatre in World War II. Ron gave us a very thorough understanding of the geopolitics leading to the Japanese Imperial expansion and then told the story of the first important naval battles, which took place in the Coral Sea, only a few miles from the calm sunny waters where the National Geographic Orion was making her way north, toward Melanesia and Micronesia.
