Life in the middle of the Atlantic

Andre Seale · Issue 46, Jan/Feb 2009 · pp. 40–44

Products mentioned: Nikon D100, Nexus Master Housing, Sea & Sea YS-90DX strobes, Nikkor 12-24mm lens, Nikkor 28-105mm lens, Nikkor 28-300mm lens

The long journey over deep ocean seems to never end. At 6 knots, the Transmar, a small commercial fishing boat, cuts through waves, prompting flyingfish to glide away from the wake. The confinement of the tiny bunk-beds combined with the 82-85 hr long haul in open ocean produce an even greater expectation of the remote destination to come. In the far reaches of the Equatorial Atlantic Ocean, rising up 4,000 meters from the sea floor, the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Islets or Rocks (ASPSP, the acronym for the official name in Portuguese, Arquipélago de São Pedro e São Paulo) emerge tenuously between sky and deep ocean. The islets, 1,010 Km away from the Brazilian coastal city of Natal, had been visited by adventurous sailors and explorers for centuries, including Charles Darwin who described them in his field annotations from aboard the Beagle in 1832: “The rocks of St. Paul appear from a …