There are few things as life-affirming as this …
eclipseguy back at work. Observing the partial phase of the eclipse on April 20, 2023, from a remote island off the NW coast of Australia.
Y’all know I love to chase eclipses. It’s what I do. But after the Great American Eclipse in 2017, I was going to take a few years off – save some money – focus on other areas of my life – then jump back in in 2020. But the pandemic put an end to that plan. My speaking gigs on ships in Chile and Antarctica were cancelled and distant travel was next to impossible. I lay around for 6 years hoping that the dark times would come to an end. And boy, did they ever. In April 2023, I embarked upon one of the most insane and ambitious adventures of my career – to seek totality from a tiny island in the south Indian Ocean, off the coast of NW Australia – a place almost nobody ever goes.
Here is what that looks like:
Not for the faint of heart, indeed. The five-hour journey across the ocean in a crew transport ship – designed to move off-shore oil workers from post to post – was a huge risk. We had no control over the weather – the waves, the swells, the wind – and we left our port town, Karratha, in the middle of the night.
And everything went smoothly. Until it was time to head back. That story in the Trip Report.
Here’s the incredibly awesome video that will forever remind me of this insane adventure – and my long-awaited return the shadow of the Moon.
Each one of us equally OCD about eclipses.