Today was a relaxing day at sea as National Geographic Explorer sailed near the Strait of Gibraltar. Our day was filled with fabulous presentations, starting with National Geographic Photographer Ruben Salgado Escudero giving a fascinating talk on “Effecting Social Change with Photography” and Historian Stephen Fisher covering the history of Spanish-English wars over 250 years. In the afternoon, Geologist Joe Holliday gave a presentation on the geology of the Iberian Peninsula.
Later, we stopped the ship for an hour to watch eight pilot whales as they surfaced and swam near the ship.
In the evening, guest musician Carlos Nunez and staff musicologist Jacob Edgar gave a fascinating talk on the musical instruments of the Celtic areas of the Atlantic coast of Spain and Portugal. The presentation concluded with many of the guests doing a traditional Celtic dance, which encircled Carlos as he played the bagpipe.
