After leaving Malta on the Saga Eastern Mediterranean Cruise, we had two full days at sea, before we would be in sight of our next destination of Limassol on Cyprus. As we were moving East in the Mediterranean, the mornings were getting lighter earlier and we were able to get sixty to ninety minutes of surveying in before breakfast.
Despite a reasonable sea for surveying, I only saw two Striped Dolphins. Additionally, we passed a lone Yellow-legged Gull. An early House Martin circled the ship a few times and provided some interest for the passengers on the top deck. There was also a brief unidentified Dolphin, which one of the others saw.
Our first day at sea after leaving Malta, ended as it started, with a nice display from the sun.
We were hopeful for an increased chance of seeing a Sperm Whale in the Mediterranean, as we were heading towards the Hellenic Trench and we were expecting to be travelling along its edge during the early morning. This is the deepest part of the Mediterranean, with depths of four to five kilometres.
The Hellenic Trench stretches in a broad arc in the seas South of South Western Greece, Crete, Rhodes and South West Turkey. This is an area where the European and African plates meet and in addition to the Hellenic Trench, this zone is also responsible for pushing up the land which formed the islands of Crete and Rhodes.
Unfortunately, the sunrise was the most exciting thing of the early morning. The hoped for Sperm Whales failed to put in an appearance, as we passed across the edge of the Hellenic Trench. In reality, seeing Sperm Whales and Beaked Whales is always as matter of luck, as both are deep diving specialists which spend the vast majority of their day feeding for Squid hundreds of metres below the surface. The odds are always against an observer, when these species spent up to ninety percentage of their time underwater. Finally, we accepted defeat and headed off for a late breakfast. The rest of the day was equally unremarkable despite excellent surveying conditions, with a lone Yelkouan Shearwater our only Wildlife sighting of the day.
However, it looked like there would be another nice looking sunset & I'm always keen to stay on deck and enjoy the sunset after we have finished surveying. There is something magical about watching the way the seas change colour and mood as the sun disappears.
On this evening, I kept looking through the camera lens as I was photographing the last embers of the sun. I didn't check the photos, as I hadn't seen anything through the camera lens. Therefore, it was a nice surprise as I was editing the photos for this Blog Post, to find I had seven photos showing the Green Flash. Yet another occasion where the Canon R7 processed image in the viewfinder, isn't as good as the optical viewfinder on its 7D Mark II predecessor.
I had always wondered why it was green. I was expecting that it should be a violet-blue colour, if it was down to light being refracted into different colours by the earth's surface. When I googled the Green Flash phenomenon, I saw this was confirmed. However, these violet-blue frequencies tend to be quickly absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere and the frequencies that aren't absorbed produce the lime-green colouration. Looking online again as I write this Blog Post, I've seen the suggestion that the Green Flash is more likely to be seen on days when there isn't a lot of dust in the air. So, while the days with a lot of dust in the air will produce the most atmospheric of sunsets, perhaps they won't go on to produce a Green Flash.
On the Saga Caribbean Calypso Cruise in Jan 24, I finally saw my first Green Flash. I had decided to stay on deck after the end of the surveying. On that occasion I was watching the last moments of the sun dropping below the horizon with my bins. For a period of what seemed like fifteen seconds, the last bit of the sun turned lime-green. I had finally seen the Green Flash and it wasn't a myth. But I didn't dare raise the camera, as I feared it would all be over by the time I could take some photos. So, I just enjoyed the moment. Since that time I've looked on as many nights as possible, but haven't seen it again. Still I have enjoyed the time spent looking. It was good that I've seen the Green Flash again and this time I've got a few photos. I will keep looking for it when I'm at sea.