Grand Banks and Newfoundland

Wednesday July 24^th, 43.5N, 48.8W

We’re now off the southernmost point of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, 294 miles southeast of St. Johns and about 124 miles to the northeast of the final resting place of the Titanic.  History boards all around the ship tell the story of the Titanic’s fateful voyage, and the rescuers aboard the Carpathia.  The Grand Banks rise above the seafloor 3 km below, sometimes as shallow as 200 m or so, but we expect it to deepen again as we make our way towards the eastern seaboard.  There are 1981 miles of sea astern, and 1171 miles still to run to New York City.  The warm moist air outside is interacting with the cold Labrador Current coming down from Greenland, and creating a thick impenetrable fog all around Queen Mary 2 today, making a walk outside rather eerie.  The Commodore reminds us that sailors don’t like the ‘F’ word (fog).   Sticking my head over the starboard side (i.e., north), I could see a ‘glory’ and a ‘fog bow’, two examples of the optical effects as the Sun penetrates through the tiny fog particles, not too dissimilar from a rainbow seen through rain droplets.  The sea itself is relatively calm, and you can barely feel the motion of the ship through the waters.