The Sea

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Credits Published by Adlard Coles Nautical, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 36 Soho Square, London W1D 3QY www.adlardcoles.com Text copyright © Adlard Coles Nautical 2011 Photography copyright © Bluegreen Pictures 2011 First edition published 2011 ISBN 978-1-4081-4665-1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means – graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or information storage and retrieval systems – without the prior permission in writing of the publishers. The right of the author to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. This book is produced using paper that is made from wood grown in managed, sustainable forests. It is natural, renewable and recyclable. The logging and manufacturing processes conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. Typeset in 10.75pt Didot Printed and bound in China by C&C Offset Printing Co

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Cover photographs:

O Haarberg 5, 11

Front cover, top: Pointe des Poulains lighthouse on Belle-Ile Island, Morbihan, Brittany (Philip Plisson)

Tony Heald 122

Front cover, bottom: An aerial view of Exuma, part of the chain of 365 islands that form the Bahamas (Onne van der Wal)

Pål Hermansen viii–1

Back cover, top: The limestone sea stacks known as the Twelve Apostles, on the Port Campbell coast, Victoria, Australia (Ian Cameron)

Brent Hedges 150–1 Gavin Hellier 138, 148 (top) Ashok Jain 130–1 Steven Kazlowski 45, 60, 94–5, 100, 101 Richard Langdon 64, 75 Diego Lopez 18–19, 24 (top), 25, 31, 34 (top) Magnus Lundgren 93, 111 Roy Mangersnes 102 (bottom), 103

Back cover, bottom: A waved albatross at Punta Cevallos, Española Island, Galapagos Islands (Pete Oxford)

Juan Carlos Muñoz 21, 24 (bottom)

Half title page: Half title page: A whirlpool at Saltstraumen, Bodö, Norway (Magnus Lundgren)

Michael Pitts 26–7, 30, 38

Title page: Waves crashing around Tevennec lighthouse in the Sein channel, Finistère, Brittany (Benoit Stichelbaut) Contents page main photo: Sunrise near Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland (Adam Burton). Other inside pages, by photographer: Francis Abbott 135 Aflo 134 (top) Doug Allan 52

Rolf Nussbaumer 132–3 Pete Oxford 47, 127 Doug Perrine 119, 128, 146–7 Guillaume Plisson vi–vii, 4 (top), 12, 36 Philip Plisson 2–3, 8, 14, 17, 28, 29, 33, 35, 50, 53, 70, 76–7, 79, 82, 84, 85 Philip and Guillaume Plisson 13, 16, 78, 81, 83, 90 Neil Rabinowitz 139, 141 (bottom) Roberto Rinaldi 112, 134 (bottom), 140, 141 (top) Catherine Jouan and Jeanne Rius 48–9, 54–5 Gabriel Rojo 57 Jeff Rotman 129

Ingo Arndt 58–9

Andy Rouse 42, 56, 120, 121, 124, 125

Franco Banfi 116

Peter Scoones 118

Sascha Burkhardt 34 (bottom)

David Shale 114, 115

Adam Burton 40–1, 142

Benoit Stichelbaut 32, 66 (bottom), 67, 96, 102 (top)

Brandon Cole 148 (bottom) Ian Cameron 6–7 Guy Edwardes 9, 145

Rick Tomlinson vi, 4 (bottom), 46, 61, 62–3, 71, 97

Christian Février 23, 39, 66 (top), 88, 91, 98–9, 143, 149

Onne van der Wal 22, 44, 68–9, 74, 86–7

David Fleetham 15, 106–7, 110, 136–7

Michele Westmorland 109

Sue Flood 51, 80

Doc White 123

Jurgen Freund 10, 37, 104

Solvin Zankl 117, 126 (top)

Chris Gomersall 105

Yvan Zedda 72–3

Staffan Widstrand 126 (bottom), 144

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Tropical dreams Paradise. We all know what paradise looks like, don’t we? For most of us, it is a sandy beach fringed with palm trees, with a crystal clear sea lapping at the shore, fish swimming lazily amongst the corals, and the sun beating down on our shoulders. Smartly-dressed waiters mix cocktails at the bar, while goodtime music plays on the radio. We slumber on a mattress as the scent of grilled fish wafts over from the barbecue. Life is good.

But paradise was not always thus. The word originally referred to a walled garden or, more specifically, the great parks created by the noble families of Persia. Later, it was used in certain versions of the Bible to describe the Garden of Eden, and from there the word found its way into the English language. The notion of paradise on earth would remain closely linked to gardens for many centuries to come. But the benefits of sun, sea and sand were certainly appreciated

by people before the modern era. The Romans travelled on holiday to Greece, Sicily and Egypt, and are said to have produced the first tourist guide, listing the available inns, complete with easy-to-follow ratings symbols. They also built holiday homes around the Bay of Naples, and the area acquired a reputation as a kind of proto-typical tourist resort. Even now, the Bay is a popular destination – though likening it to paradise might be a tad fanciful.

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Tourism took a dip in the Middles Ages, and it wasn’t until the advent of the Grand Tour in the 17th Century that travel for pleasure became fashionable again. Seaside ‘spa’ resorts developed throughout Europe from the beginning of the 18th Century, and the concept was exported to the Caribbean as early as 1751, when the 19-year-old George Washington and his ailing brother visited Barbados specifically for its health-giving climate. A few years later, the first tourist hotel opened on

the island of Nevis, and soon counted Horatio Nelson and the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge among its guests. Already, the lure of idyllic beaches and warm seas was beginning to supplant the agrarian concept of paradise in the western imagination. But the biggest development in our quest for a water-borne nirvana was the arrival of cheap overseas flights following World War II. By the mid-1950s, most of the Caribbean islands were building hotels as fast as they could fill them. Top of the list of

attractions were the islands’ unsullied beaches and limpid waters; cocktails and massages were optional extras. By the end of the century, an annual overseas holiday was almost regarded as a basic human right, and paradise would never be the same again. Above: A yacht sailing through the sunset in Hanali Bay, Kavai, Hawaii. Previous pages: Flamingos wading in the lake at Nal Sarovar Bird Sanctuary, Gujarat, India. 133

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Top: Anthias on a coral reef, Red Sea.

Above: Anthias on a coral reef, Farasan Islands, Saudi Arabia.

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Juvenile schooling fish on a coral reef, Indo-Pacific.

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Previous pages: A tow-in surfer drops to the curl of Hawaii’s big surf at Peahi (Jaws) off Maui, Hawaii.

Above: Soufrière Bay landscape with the volcanic peaks of the Pitons, St Lucia, Caribbean.

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Sailing yacht near the uninhabited island of Green Cay, British Virgin Islands, Caribbean.

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Top: Coral boulders near the beach at Walea Island, Togian Islands, Sulawesi.

Above: Catamaran sailing in turquoise blue water near a secluded white sand beach, Saint John, US Virgin Islands, Caribbean.

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Traditional canoe (pirogue) in front of a small island between New Hannover and New Ireland, Papua New Guinea.

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