Wednesday, November 14 Palm Cove – Total Solar Eclipse

A Near Thing

     The big day had arrived! With the dicey weather of the past three days I wasn't too hopeful about getting a break from the clouds, but when I hopped up from the hide-a-bed in C&A's apartment at 4 am and looked at the night sky from the balcony I saw stars. That's good, I thought. I got back in bed but couldn't sleep, so I got up and fiddled around getting our cameras ready and into the backpack, trying to be quiet and not wake the others.

     Soon everyone was up, Amy made coffee for all of us, and we headed out to the shore. It was a festive atmosphere in Palm Cove. A crowd of people had already set up at the edge of the sand, but not too many had gone out to the jetty, so we picked out a spot to watch. The sun was poking through the clouds on the horizon, but there was a large bank of clouds higher up that we knew would have to move if we were to see the eclipse.

Waiting for the sun

Watching sunrise from the jetty

There's more than one way to watch the eclipse...

... some are rather expensive...

... and allow you to find the best spots...

... unless someone has already taken it

You might have to work a little to get there...

... but you might get a little wet if you're not careful

   

Maybe it's better to stick with the crowd

  The moon first started passing in front of the sun at 5:45 am, only 15 minutes after sunrise. We didn't see that, because by then the clouds had obscured our view. Totality would be at 6:39 am, and we scanned the skies, hoping that the patchwork clouds would open up before totality. We did have awesome views of sun rays pouring through windows in the clouds, now if one of those windows would just open for us.

Come on clouds, let us see too!

     As we neared totality, we could see the sun shining on the coast south a few miles south of us. The light had turned metallic and gray, the green of the forested mountain range now a silvery hue. With less than ten minutes to go the sunny area drifted towards us. Then, with only seven minutes left, the skies brightened, we put the protective eclipse glasses to our eyes, and saw the narrow sliver of sun shrink down to nothingness.

Only seven minutes until totality

  

      With a final flash, the sun disappeared behind the moon, we took off our eclipse glasses, and marveled at the unforgettable sight of the sun's corona outlining the moon.

That's what I'm talkin' about!

     For a little over two minutes it was dark. We could see a some stars, the lights were on in Palm Cove, the horizon like dusk. We could hear cheering from the shore. Then, quickly, it was over. The 'diamond ring' appeared momentarily as the sun began to reappear, and then suddenly it was day again. Most of the spectators began drifting away, but we stalwarts watched for the next 50 minutes or so as the moon gradually gave back the sun's disk.

"I'm not moving until the show is over"

We're a long way from Keys Road

     I had prepared myself for clouds, and it would still have been an amazing experience if we had missed totality, but we were all smiles for our good luck. We walked back to the apartment, enjoying the people hanging around. Then we had breakfast, and all took naps.

    The rest of the day was mostly taking care of chores. Now we're sitting in C&A's apartment, drinking wine and talking about plans for the next couple days. Let you know about that later. 

      But goal #1 for our trip Down Under was a success!  It really was a near thing.  But we saw the eclipse, something we've been planning since seeing our first eclipse in Mexico in 1991. Now if we can only make it to our 60^th birthdays.