Eclipse'98 Gallery

This is a gallery of images reported by James Lambert and his friend Jeff Solazzi on a sailboat near Guadeloupe. What a grand day they had!

	One of our boats. Cozy, but not a place to live on for a long time. Just right for a weeklong vacation.
	Interviewing Ken Wilcox a few days before totality.
Interviewing Fred Espenak that same day
	It's tough job... but someone's got to do it. Joking with Olivier Staiger.
It's E-day, and there's clouds over the island of Guadeloupe, so we're heading out to seas.
	Dad, are you sure these are the right glasses? (I think I'm gonna see 5 eclipses today)
We're not alone - there are whales!!!!! See that one spouting up water over there?
	Incredible!

	Guys, the shadow is rolling in!!! Totality is here!
*Wow, I mean: W O W ! ! !* *Thank you God!*
	Look at them planets. And look at the yellow'ish colors along the horizon!

Totality is over. We're heading back.... but wait, the show's not over. Now we're being joined and greeted by a group of dolphins! Lots of them!
	This one's jumping up in the air right between our two boats! Yeeeeha.
yep, definitively a grand day to remember!
But wait, there's still even more. Just when we thought we'd had a good day, Mont-Serrat's volcano greets us too, with a nice plume of ashes. Holy smokes! Can you see it rising there?
	Ok, that's it, we've had enough excitement for a day. We're outahere, good night folks! Over and out.....

All images are protected by copyright rights of their respective owners. Here's the e-mail which Ed Lambert sent me. Can you feel the excitement?

Phillip, Olivier, Ken & Fred,

Thank you again so much for sharing your day in Guadaloupe with us. James
and Jeff were thrilled with the opportunity to talk with all of you. I am
happy to report an incredible eclipse day on the ocean!

Due to a cloudy morning on the island, we chose to head out to sea rather
than set up on a beach. We sailed NW from the port of Deshais toward
Montserrat and the centerline that lay in between. Unfortunately this also
meant that our cellular link was too poor to allow us to upload images to
the Staigerland Webcast - sorry Phillip! This is too bad because of the
incredible experience I will now describe.

Minutes after the first contact, as many as a dozen whales appeared close
to our sailboats. For the next 35 minutes we motored and sailed around
whales breeching, diving and approaching the boat! At least two different
species were observed and I have great video of a lone sperm whale swimming
between two of our boats and another type of whale (possibly a humpback)
approaching to within a few feet of the bow of our boat.

Totality itself was spectacular in the middle of the ocean. We were about
10 miles from Guadaloupe and 20 miles from Montserrat. Immediately after
totality we headed back to port and thought we saw some tuna jumping out of
the water and decided to investigate. We soon found ourselves in the
middle of a group of dolphins (including baby dolphins) jumping, playing,
and swimming along the bow of the boat!

To top it off, shortly after the dolphins disappeared and well before the
last contact of the eclipse, the volcano on Montserrat decided to share a
small eruption with us. I have it all on video: the whales, the eclipse,
the dolphins, and the mushrrom cloud over Montserrat. I will shortly be
editing it into "Jeff and James Most Excellant Adventure" for their class
project. I will, of course, send copies to each of you as a small part of
my appreciation for seeing you in Guadaloupe.

Best Regards,

Ed Lambert