My next assignment begins on April 10th 2025 when I fly to Capetown to join Cunard’s latest addition to the fleet, Queen Anne. I am looking forward to experiencing the new ship and finding some warmth and sunshine after the cold of Norway! I will be sailing from Capetown to Southampton via Namibia, Senegal and the Canaries. More updates later!
I had a very eventful two months leading the search for the Northern Lights in Norway on Viking Vela. Norway suffered from terrible weather for the whole trip and we only managed to get beyond the Arctic Circle on two of the four cruises. However, we did get to see the aurora several times during our trip. I carried out “aurora watches” on deck several times, even though we had heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures. I also conducted photography workshops to help the guests get the best images of the Northern Lights. At the end of the last voyage, I created a video from the photographs submitted by guests. You can see it below. You can also see some of the images I took in the Gallery.
From 3rd of February, I will be Resident Astronomer on Viking Vela as we sail In Search of the Northern Lights. I’ll be aboard for two months, giving lectures, doing photograpy workshops and conducting Aurora Watch nights on deck! Join me on the blog for the latest images of the aurora!
I am currently on Viking Jupiter in South America. We are having a terrific cruise with full houses for lectures and planetarium show. We have also managed some very successful “stargazing nights.”
Having just arrived back from Canada in the Fall on Fred Olsen Borealis, I will be setting off on my next assignment on Saga Spirit of Discovery to the Caribbean. This cruise will be a bit warmer than Canada or Alaska and I’ll be delivering a series of talks as well as doing some stargazing nights.
After a brief sojourn to visit our son in the USA we are back on our travels. From October 3rd I will be the resident astronomer on Fred Olsen’s Borealis during her latest voyage, Canada in the Fall. More info later!
Well! What a voyage this has been so far. Firstly, Fred Olsen’s Borealis is a terrific ship with nice venues, artwork and the food is great. However, when we left Southampton to cross the Atlantic to Canada we were not prepared for Hurricane Kirk which meant we had to divert to Funchal in Madeira! It took us nine days to reach Canada by which time we had three ports cancelled due to weather. Fortunately, once we were in the St.Lawrence river, things brightened up and we had a fabulous time in Montreal, Quebec, Saguenay and Corner Brook. We are now sailing to St.John’s in Newfoundland (one of our earlier cancelled ports) but will miss Cobh in Ireland on the way back. I have delivered several talks during the voyage, all with great crowds and very well received. The stargazing nights have not been so successful because of weather and the only two clear(ish) nights were blighted by a bright Moon.
This morning I received an email asking me to join our next cruise to the Caribbean on November the 5th instead of the 9th so, onwards and upwards!
After a fantastic assignment on Viking Orion we are now at home in sunny Devon. It was a pleasure as always to sail on the beautiful Viking ship and deliver lectures on astronomy and astrophysics to the guests. We even managed a great stargazing night on the first clear night for over a month! We are now heading to the USA for a brief holiday where we will stay with our son in Connecticut! On our return we will only have a few days before heading back to sea for Canada in the Fall!
I had an amazing whale watching trip from Sitka and fulfilled a life-long ambition to photograph a breaching Humpback whale!
I had a fabulous trip to Neets Point from Ketchikan where I got up-close and personal with several Brown Bears, one of which surprised me by suddenly coming through the undergrowth and onto the trail. It was no more than 4 feet away from me and just looked at me as if I was breakfast. Fortunately, the guide came along and told the bear to “get back!” I was amazed when it turned around and went back to the shoreline having obvioisly decided salmon was more tasty than Scotsman!
We sailed into Glacier Bay where there are over 1000 glaciers! Beautiful place, full of wildlife.
