Saturday, January 28, 2023 – Photo of the Day – Crusing The Pacific Ocean
Where in the World Are We?
Terry Bishop | Featured Lecturer
The Voyages Of The Beagle That Changed The World, Part 1
Fitzroy and Darwin travel the oceans to find their own answers to big questions
Terry Bishop was raised and educated in the west of England. For 35 years he was a psychiatric nurse, a child protection social worker, and a senior manager in Youth Justice and Child Care.
Terry has led groups of walkers/explorers across many of the battlefields of Europe and has explored historic sites in the USA, Africa, and beyond. He has trekked the foothills of the Himalayas, ventured across the Namib Desert, and driven relief supplies from England to Belarus post-Chornobyl.
A real-life Troubadour, he seeks to inform and entertain, incorporating humor, music, and song. Terry is also an accomplished folk musician and has produced two films on social issues.
He and his wife Julie share their time when not cruising between homes in Rochester, England, and Andalusia, Southern Spain.
Charles Darwin sailed around the world from 1831–1836 as a naturalist aboard the HMS Beagle. His experiences and observations helped him develop the theory of evolution through natural selection.
James Grant-Peterkin | Featured Lecturer
An Introduction To Tahiti & French Polynesia
Explore the 118 islands that make up this modern ‘Garden of Eden’
James Grant-Peterkin is a Cambridge University graduate and the British Honorary Consul on Easter Island. He has been studying Polynesian culture, linguistics, and archaeology for over 20 years, most of those while living on Easter Island, and is the author of the guidebook “A Companion to Easter Island”. He has lectured extensively on Eastern Polynesia on cruise ships and at educational institutions worldwide.
See our day of dining during a ‘Day at Sea’.
Friday, January 27, 2023 – Photos of the Day – Cruising The Pacific Ocean
Where in the World Are We?
James Grant-Peterkin | Featured Lecturer
The Trouble Life Of Paul Gaugin
Understand the complex artist who spent his formative years in French Polynesia
James Grant-Peterkin is a Cambridge University graduate and the British Honorary Consul on Easter Island. He has been studying Polynesian culture, linguistics, and archaeology for over 20 years, most of those while living on Easter Island. He is the author of the guidebook “A Companion to Easter Island”. He has lectured extensively on Eastern Polynesia on cruise ships and at educational institutions worldwide.
Eugène Gauguin (7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of color and Synthetist style distinct from Impressionism. Toward the end of his life, he spent ten years in French Polynesia in 1903 where he is buried. The paintings from this time depict people or landscapes from that region.
Thursday, January 26, 2023 – Photo of the Day – Cruising the Pacific Ocean
Where in the World Are We?
Terry Bishop | Featured Lecturer
The Great Pacific Explorers – Abel Tasman
The Dutch make an impression in the East Indies and the Pacific
Terry Bishop was raised and educated in the west of England. For 35 years he was a psychiatric nurse, a child protection social worker, and a senior manager in Youth Justice and Child Care.
Terry has led groups of walkers/explorers across many of the battlefields of Europe and has explored historic sites in the USA, Africa, and beyond. He has trekked the foothills of the Himalayas, ventured across the Namib Desert, and driven relief supplies from England to Belarus post-Chornobyl.
A real-life Troubadour, he seeks to inform and entertain, incorporating humor, music, and song. Terry is also an accomplished folk musician and has produced two films on social issues.
He and his wife Julie share their time when not cruising between homes in Rochester, England, and Andalusia, Southern Spain.
Abel Tasman was born in 1603 in Lutjegast, Netherlands, Tasman started his career as a merchant seaman and became a skilled navigator. In 1633, he sailed to Jakarta, Indonesia. He participated in several voyages, including one to Japan. In 1642, Tasman was appointed to lead an expedition to explore the uncharted regions of the Southern Pacific Ocean. His mission was to discover new trade routes and to establish trade relations with the native inhabitants. Tasman sailed eastward and reached the coast of Tasmania, and named it Van Diemans Land. He then sailed north and discovered the west coast of New Zealand, which he named Staten Landt.
James Grant-Peterkin | Featured Lecturer
Mutiny On The Bounty
Relive the world’s most famous mutiny by Fletcher Christian and his men.
James Grant-Peterkin is a Cambridge University graduate and the British Honorary Consul on Easter Island. He has been studying Polynesian culture, linguistics, and archaeology for over 20 years, most of those while living on Easter Island, and is the author of the guidebook “A Companion to Easter Island”. He has lectured extensively on Eastern Polynesia on cruise ships and at educational institutions worldwide.
The mutiny on the Bounty occurred in the South Pacific Ocean on 28 April 1789. Disaffected crewmen, led by acting-Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, seized control of the ship from their captain, Lieutenant William Bligh, and set him and eighteen loyalists adrift in the ship’s open launch. The mutineers variously settled on Tahiti or on Pitcairn Island. Bligh navigated more than 4,000 miles in the launch to reach safety and began the process of bringing the mutineers to justice. Christian discovered Pitcairn which was an ideal haven. Eventually rivalries arose, Christian and others were killed leaving one original mutineer surviving.
Tonight’s entertainment was Linda Gentile, one of the most famous female entertainers on the high seas.
Wednesday, January 25, 2023 – Photo of the Day – Easter Island, Chile
Where in the world are we?
Easter Island
Easter Island is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania.
The island is most famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, which were created by the early Rapa Nui people. The native islanders carved them using only stone hand chisels made of basalt.
The name “Easter Island” was given by the island’s first recorded European visitor, the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen, who encountered it on Easter Sunday 5 April 5, 1722.
The current Polynesian name of the island, Rapa Nui (“Big Rapa”), was coined after the slave raids of the early 1860s and refers to the island’s topographic resemblance to the island of Rapa in the Bass Islands of the Austral Islands group.
In 1995, UNESCO named Easter Island a World Heritage Site, with much of the island protected within Rapa Nui National Park.
TODAY’S EXCURSION – EASTER ISLAND PANORAMA
We compared the vastly different styles of moai statues at each archaeological site, taking in Easter Island’s haunting landscape.
The unusual Moai of Tahai stand on their stone “ahu” platform along the coastline north of Hanga Roa, the island’s only city. The five main statues here vary widely in scale and shape and are among the oldest known, dating back to the 7th century. The two largest figures may represent a mother and father or symbolize venerated ancestors of an indigenous clan. No one knows for sure; Easter Island’s enigmatic moai were created by a remote culture without written history and descended into infighting and environmental chaos before disappearing entirely by the 1700s.
It’s only thanks to the efforts of American archaeologist William Mulloy, who excavated sites from 1955 – 1975, that we can observe these marvelous mysteries standing at all. Arriving at inland Ahu Akivi, you’ll notice the style difference immediately – these seven Moai thought to represent ancient ambassadors, face out toward the sea and overlooking a village long in ruins.
The return drive to the pier included a stop at Ahu Poukura, a moai site yet to be restored and we visited a local market offering wood and shell handicrafts.
Tuesday, January 24, 2023 – Photo of the Day – Cruising The Pacific Ocean
Where in the World Are We?
James Grant-Peterkin | Featured Lecturer
Easter Island Today
Understand the modern challenges facing this and other remote islands.
James Grant-Peterkin is a Cambridge University graduate and the British Honorary Consul on Easter Island. He has been studying Polynesian culture, linguistics, and archaeology for over 20 years, most of those while living on Easter Island, and is the author of the guidebook “A Companion to Easter Island”. He has lectured extensively on Eastern Polynesia on cruise ships and at educational institutions worldwide.
1000 years ago the islanders set up their large moai on platforms to attract the favor of the gods to provide prosperity, security, and wealth. Ten centuries later, thanks to a thriving tourist industry, this is exactly what the moai are doing. The introduction of reliable Internet daily flights to the mainland, and a wider range of consumer goods and activities have removed the sense of remoteness.
Monday, January 23, 2023 – Photo of the Day – Crusing the Pacific
Where in the World Are We?
Terry Bishop | Featured Lecturer
The Great Pacific Explorers – Francis Drake – ‘El Draco’
Hero or Devil? Explorer, navigator, warrior and pirate?
Terry Bishop was raised and educated in the west of England. For 35 years he was a psychiatric nurse, a child protection social worker, and a senior manager in Youth Justice and Child Care.
Terry has led groups of walkers/explorers across many of the battlefields of Europe and has explored historic sites in the USA, Africa, and beyond. He has trekked the foothills of the Himalayas, ventured across the Namib Desert, and driven relief supplies from England to Belarus post-Chornobyl.
A real-life Troubadour, he seeks to inform and entertain, incorporating humor, music, and song. Terry is also an accomplished folk musician and has produced two films on social issues.
He and his wife Julie share their time when not cruising between homes in Rochester, England, and Andalusia, Southern Spain.
Sir Francis Drake – to the Spanish, a wayward pirate; to the English, a hero. He could be considered a morally dubious hero in many ways, perhaps even a villain, but was still incredibly influential in Tudor times.
Sir Francis Drake (c. 1540 – 28 January 1596) was an English explorer and privateer best known for his circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition between 1577 and 1580. This was the first English circumnavigation, and the third circumnavigation overall. He is also known for participating in the early English slaving voyages of his cousin, Sir John Hawkins.
In 1572, he set sail on his first independent mission, privateering along the Spanish Main. Drake’s circumnavigation began on 15 December 1577. He crossed the Pacific Ocean, until then an area of exclusive Spanish interest, and laid claim to New Albion, plundering coastal towns and ships for treasure and supplies as he went. He arrived back in England on 26 September 1580.
James Grant-Peterkin | Featured Lecturer
Easter Island: Collapse?
Discover how this once mighty civilization comes to a crashing end.
James Grant-Peterkin is a Cambridge University graduate and the British Honorary Consul on Easter Island. He has been studying Polynesian culture, linguistics, and archaeology for over 20 years, most of those while living on Easter Island, and is the author of the guidebook “A Companion to Easter Island”. He has lectured extensively on Eastern Polynesia on cruise ships and at educational institutions worldwide.
Rapa Nui is often seen as a cautionary example of societal collapse. In this story, made popular by geographer Jared Diamond’s bestselling book Collapse, the Indigenous people of the island, the Rapanui, so destroyed their environment that, by around 1600, their society fell into a downward spiral of warfare, cannibalism, and population decline. These catastrophes, the collapse narrative explains, resulted in the destruction of the social and political structures that were in place during precolonial times, though the people of Rapa Nui survive and persist on the island to the present day.
January 22, 2023 – Photo of the Day – Cruising The Pacific Ocean
Where in the World are we?
James Grant-Peterkin | Featured Lecturer
Rocking or Rolling?
Discover how Easter Island’s iconic statues were carved and transported.
James Grant-Peterkin is a Cambridge University graduate and the British Honorary Consul on Easter Island. He has been studying Polynesian culture, linguistics, and archaeology for over 20 years, most of those while living on Easter Island, and is the author of the guidebook “A Companion to Easter Island”. He has lectured extensively on Eastern Polynesia on cruise ships and at educational institutions worldwide.
500 Easter Island moai were moved out of the quarry along a network of roads to platforms called ahu all over the island. The largest of the moved moai is over 33 feet tall and weighs approximately 81.5 tons. Theories on how they were moved.
Today we learned about Celestial Navigation using a sextant and an extremely accurate type of clock called a chronometer.
Heidi Hart presented “A Taste of Tahita”, an Iaorana from Polynesia Polynesia on a little culture, food, and traditions of Tahiti.
The “Where In The World Party” joined friends and fellow guests who lived in our area of the world to meet each other.
We had late-night laughter at the “Liar’s Club” as an expert panel tried to convince us they were telling the truth.
Saturday, January 21, 2023 – Photo of the Day – Cruising The Pacific Ocean
Where in the World are we?
Terry Bishop | Featured Lecturer
The Great Pacific Explorers – Ferdinand Magellan
The ‘Nearly Man’ – traitor or hero? Discover more about this complex character
Terry Bishop was raised and educated in the west of England. For 35 years he was a psychiatric nurse, a child protection social worker, and a senior manager in Youth Justice and Child Care.
Terry has led groups of walkers/explorers across many of the battlefields of Europe and has explored historic sites in the USA, Africa, and beyond. He has trekked the foothills of the Himalayas, ventured across the Namib Desert, and driven relief supplies from England to Belarus post-Chornobyl.
A real-life Troubadour, he seeks to inform and entertain, incorporating humor, music, and song. Terry is also an accomplished folk musician and has produced two films on social issues.
He and his wife Julie share their time when not cruising between homes in Rochester, England, and Andalusia, Southern Spain.
Ferdinand Magellan (4 February 1480 – 27 April 1521) was a Portuguese explorer. He is best known for having planned and led the 1519 Spanish expedition to the East Indies across the Pacific Ocean to open a maritime trade route, during which he discovered the interoceanic passage bearing thereafter his name and achieved the first European navigation from the Atlantic to Asia.
During this voyage, Magellan was killed in the Battle of Mactan in 1521 in the present-day Philippines, after running into resistance from the indigenous population led by Lapulapu, who consequently became a Philippine national symbol of resistance to colonialism.
Friday, January 20, 2023 – Photo of the Day – Cruising The Pacific Ocean
Where in the world are we?
James Grant-Peterkin | Featured Lecturer
An Introduction to Polynesia.
Discover the largest ocean on our planet and how it was populated.
James Grant-Peterkin is a Cambridge University graduate and the British Honorary Consul on Easter Island. He has been studying Polynesian culture, linguistics, and archaeology for over 20 years, most of those while living on Easter Island, and is the author of the guidebook “A Companion to Easter Island”. He has lectured extensively on Eastern Polynesia on cruise ships and at educational institutions worldwide.
James presented how early populations moved from the Middle East to Southeast Asia across the South Pacific over millennia.
Terry Bishop | Featured Lecturer
The Wolf of the Seas – Thomas Cochrane
The people;s popular naval rebel in the Pacific and beyond.
Terry Bishop was raised and educated in the west of England. For 35 years he was a psychiatric nurse, a child protection social worker, and a senior manager in Youth Justice and Child Care.
Terry has led groups of walkers/explorers across many of the battlefields of Europe and has explored historic sites in the USA, Africa, and beyond. He has trekked the foothills of the Himalayas, ventured across the Namib Desert, and driven relief supplies from England to Belarus post-Chornobyl.
A real-life Troubadour, he seeks to inform and entertain, incorporating humor, music, and song. Terry is also an accomplished folk musician and has produced two films on social issues.
He and his wife Julie share their time when not cruising between homes in Rochester, England, and Andalusia, Southern Spain.
Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald GCB (14 December 1775 – 31 October 1860), was a Scottish naval officer, peer, mercenary, and politician. Serving during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars in the Royal Navy, his naval successes led Napoleon to nickname him le Loup des Mers (the Sea Wolf).
Cochrane was dismissed from the Royal Navy in 1814 after a controversial conviction for fraud on the London Stock Exchange. Traveling to South America, he helped organize and lead the revolutionary navies of Chile and Brazil during their respective wars of independence during the 1820s. While commanding the Chilean Navy, Cochrane contributed to Peruvian independence by participating in the Liberating Expedition of Peru. He was also hired to help the Greek Revolutionary Navy during the Greek War of Independence but ultimately had little impact.
In 1832, Cochrane was pardoned by the Crown and reinstated in the Royal Navy with the rank of Rear-Admiral of the Blue. After several more promotions, he died in 1860 with the rank of Admiral of the Red and the honorary title of Rear-Admiral of the United Kingdom. Cochrane’s life and exploits inspired the naval fiction of 19th and 20th-century novelists, particularly the fictional characters C. S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower and Patrick O’Brian’s Jack Aubrey.
Thursday, January 19, 2023 – Photo of the Day – Lima, Peru
Where in the world are we?
Lima, the capital of Peru, lies on the country’s arid Pacific coast. Though its colonial center is preserved, it’s a bustling metropolis and one of South America’s largest cities. It’s home to the Museo Larco collection of pre-Columbian art and the Museo de la Nación, tracing the history of Peru’s ancient civilizations. The Plaza de Armas and the 16th-century cathedral are the heart of old Lima Centro. Unfortunately we were not able to visit due to political unrest and strikes forcing the Callao port to close.
Terry Bishop | Featured Lecturer
From Peru to the Amazon
Who Has the Amazon Has Brazil – Tales of Tragedy and Success
Terry Bishop was raised and educated in the west of England. For 35 years he was a psychiatric nurse, a child protection social worker, and a senior manager in Youth Justice and Child Care.
Terry has led groups of walkers/explorers across many of the battlefields of Europe and has explored historic sites in the USA, Africa, and beyond. He has trekked the foothills of the Himalayas, ventured across the Namib Desert, and driven relief supplies from England to Belarus post-Chornobyl.
A real-life Troubadour, he seeks to inform and entertain, incorporating humor, music, and song. Terry is also an accomplished folk musician and has produced two films on social issues.
He and his wife Julie share their time when not cruising between homes in Rochester, England, and Andalusia, Southern Spain.
James Grant-Peterkin | Featured Lecturer
Thor Heyerdahl & Kon-Tiki
Step aboard this 1947 expedition by the famous Norwegian explorer
James Grant-Peterkin is a Cambridge University graduate and the British Honorary Consul on Easter Island. He has been studying Polynesian culture, linguistics, and archaeology for over 20 years, most of those while living on Easter Island, and is the author of the guidebook “A Companion to Easter Island”. He has lectured extensively on Eastern Polynesia on cruise ships and at educational institutions worldwide.
