Last night we got some stowaways on board. Polaris invited Thalia Grant, her husband Greg Estes, a long time naturalist and friend of mine, and their children Olivia (3 years) and Devon (9 months) to sail with us to Genovesa Island to visit her parents Peter and Rosemary Grant. If you read our Daily Expedition Report from last week's visit (February 15th) you know the Grants are world famous for the discovery of "natural selection" by studying the finches' beaks. For the moment they are doing their research on warbler finches on Genovesa (see photo from last week). Thalia wanted to surprise them by showing up early this morning after anchoring. It was also my chance to send an invitation out to join us for lunch on board, knowing that they are always busy in the mornings, the best time to observe the finches. Our guests were thrilled to have Thalia, Greg, Olivia and Devon for breakfast and they were even more thrilled when Peter and Rosemary joined some tables for lunch. In between the meals, our guests saw Greg and Thalia carrying all their camp gear, food, gallons of water and the kids, up the cliff side. I went up also, carrying only the camera to make a photo of the campsite (insert) and that was hard enough! I can only admire the Grants so much more after my little experience, to do this with their children and all the gear!
At 2 p.m. Greg, who is a specialist on Charles Darwin and who recently came out with a paper (Royal Society) on Darwin together with Thalia and Peter, gave us a most interesting lecture and guests had the chance to ask Greg, Peter and Rosemary lots of questions. As a matter of fact we had to short cut it for the afternoon program! The whole family will stay till Tuesday on Genovesa and Peter and Rosemary will leave then to the island of Pinta for 2 weeks, afterwards to Daphne where, when we circumnavigate this little island with Polaris, we can wave at them again!
