Below are the cruises on which I have been priviledged to serve as a speaker from my 51st cruise in November 2016 to date.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016: Two back-to-back cruises on Seven Seas Navigator as a Smithsonian Journeys speaker for Regent, the first from Cape Verde to Cape Town, via West Africa including first visits to The Gambia and Cote D'Ivoire and a return visit to Sao Tome, followed by a Cape Town to Cape Town South African cruise including Richard's Bay, Durban, East London and Walvis Bay. *

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017: Two more back-to-back cruises as a Smithsonian Speaker for Regent Seven Seas Cruises on Seven Seas Voyager, including our first visits to New Zealand with 9 ports of call including Milford Sound, plus Burnie in Tasmania, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns and Darwin in Australia, Komodo Island and Bali in Indonesia and ending in Singapore.

MAY/JUNE 2017: Back on Seven Seas Navigator for Regent on a round-trip from Miami visiting four of the key ports in the Amazon, including Manaus, as well as seven Caribbean Islands and Ile de Salut ('Devil's Island') off French Guiana, including first visits for Michael to St Barts and Puerto Rico. *

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2017: On Seven Seas Navigator again, from Montreal via Quebec, Saguenay, Corner Brook and St John's (Newfoundland) in Canada and St Pierre & Miquelon to Greenland (Nuuk, Paamiut, Qaqortoq and Prins Christian Sund) and Reykjavik in Iceland, then on to Isafjordur and Akureyri (Iceland) and Torshavn (Faroe Islands) before ending in Ålesund, Norway.

[SEPTEMBER 2017: Michael was 'host', with Sue, for an 'overland' Smithsonian Journey trip to Machu Picchu and the Galapagos, including visits also to Lima, Cusco and Quito in Peru and Ecuador.]

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017: Miami to Los Angeles, via Grand Cayman, Cartagena in Columbia, the Panama Canal, Golfito and Puntarenas in Costa Rica, Corinto in Nicaragua, Puerto Quetzal in Guatemala and Acapulco and Cabo San Lucas in Mexico on Seven Seas Navigator. *  (cruise 60)

MARCH/APRIL 2018: We joined Seven Seas Navigator for 51 nights of her World Cruise, on legs from Singapore to Rio, visiting Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi in Malaysia; Phuket, Thailand; Colombo, Sri Lanka; Malé in the Maldives; Mahé in the Seychelles, Port Louis, Mauritius; Pointe de Galets, Réunion; then Richards Bay, Durban, East London and Cape Town in South Africa; Luderitz and Walvis Bay in Namibia; then 9 days at sea (sadly without the scheduled visit to Tristan da Cunha) to Montevideo and Punta del Este in Uruguay; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Santos in Brazil and ending in Rio de Janeiro.

JUNE 2018: New York to Reykjavik on Seven Seas Navigator, via Martha's Vineyard, Boston and Bar Harbour, then Halifax and Corner Brook in Canada, Nuuk and Paamiut in Greenland, a transit of Prins Christian Sund, and Isafjordur in Iceland.

JULY 2018: A return to Viking Ocean Cruises for a cruise visiting Bergen, Geiranger, Molde, Tromso, Honningsvag, and Leknes in Norway, Shetland and Orkney and ending in Rosyth for Edinburgh.

AUGUST 2018: North again to Arctic Russia, including Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, with a first visit to Lysekil in Sweden and a variety of Norwegian ports on Seven Seas Navigator. *

OCTOBER 2018: Miami to Honolulu on Seven Seas Mariner, with stops in several Central American ports and first visits for us to Havana in Cuba and to Hawaii, with time on Maui and Oahu.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018: We rejoined Seven Seas Mariner for a return visit to New Zealand, cruising from Auckland to Sydney, including our first visits to Wellington and Lyttleton Harbour (for Christchurch) and Gelong and Eden in Australia.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019: A first visit to Arctic Norway in winter, (very) successfully In Search of the Northern Lights for Viking Ocean Cruises on Viking Sky, with ports including Narvik, Alta and Tromsø.

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2019: Three back-to-back cruises on Seven Seas Explorer took Michael from Guayaquil in Ecuador to Lisbon, via changeovers in Los Angeles and Miami. As well as mutliple visits to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Mexico, and a 4th transit of the Panama Canal, the trip included welcome returns to Georgetown on Grand Cayman and Faial and Sao Miguel in the Azores, and a first visit to Bermuda. *

MAY 2019: North Pacific Passage on Viking Orion took us to Japan for the first time, then on to Korsakov and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the Far East of Russia and across the International Date Line to Alaska. New ports for us here included Dutch Harbor, Kodiak, Seward, Valdez, Icy Strait Point, other 'Inside Passage' ports and Vancouver. This was followed by Alaska & The Inside Passage which added a first visit to Skagway as we got to know Alaska much better.

JULY 2019: We returned to the fjords and far north of Norway and Murmansk on Seven Seas Navigator. Hurricane force winds stopped us entering the White Sea, but the bonus was unscheduled visits to Tromsø, Narvik (in summer) and a first time ashore in Bodø.

SEPTEMBER 2019: We enjoyed three short cruises to the Inside Passage of Alaska and its wonderful wildlife on board Seven Seas Mariner, visiting Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, Sitka, the Hubbard Glacier and Seward, as well as Vancouver. The last cruise travelled on to Los Angeles, via Victoria on Vancouver Island, Astoria in Oregon and San Francisco.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019: The South of South America on Viking Sun, starting from Buenos Aires and visiting Montevideo, Stanley in the Falkland Islands, Ushuaia in Argentina, my 3rd transit of Cape Horn, then Punta Arenas, Puerto Chacabuco and Valparaiso in Chile *.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020: Circle Australia cruise on Seven Seas Navigator, an amazing 36-night cruise covering 8,771nm, Sydney-Sydney, stopping at Brisbane, Airlie Beach, Cairns, Alotau and Port Moresby (our first visit to Papua New Guinea), Darwin, Komodo, Benoa on Bali, Exmouth, Geraldton, Fremantle, Adelaide, Kangaroo Island, Portland, Melbourne, Phillip Island, Burnie in Tasmania, and Eden.

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2020: We then stayed on Seven Seas Navigator for New Zealand Splendors, stopping again at Melbourne and Burnie. Return visits then followed to Milford Sound, Dunedin, Akaroa, Wellington, Napier, Tauranga and Bay of Islands in New Zealand, and we flew safely home from Auckland on March 13th, just as the coronavirus was starting to lockdown the world. (Cruise 80 - an appropriate time for a break!))

COVID INTERVENES: In 2020-21, I estimate that I missed over 120 days at sea as a result of the Covid shutdown.

JUNE/JULY 2021: I was thrilled to help Viking Ocean Cruises make their Covid-secure return to sea, on four week-long cruises on Viking Sky that circumnavigated Iceland from Reykjavik, also visiting Isafjordur, Akureyri, Seydisfjordur, Djupivogur, and Heimaey on the Westman islands, in perfect safety ensured by daily PCR tests.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021: I returned to Viking Ocean Cruises for an Iberia to West Indies cruise on Viking Sea from Barcelona to San Juan, Puerto Rico, with calls to Valencia, Cadiz, Gibraltar, Madeira and a first visit to St Maarten in the Caribbean, with 6 days at sea cross the Atlantic. I then did part of West Indies Explorer, returning to St Maarten, St Lucia, and Barbados, and with first visits to Dominica for some excellent whale-watching and St Kitts. *

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022: Sue and I joined two back-to-back cruises for Viking Ocean Cruises In Search of the Northern Lights, on Viking Venus, with return visits to (and excellent aurora sightings in) Narvik, Tromsø and Alta. Stormy weather prevented docking in Lerwick and Bodø, but Trondheim was added as some consolation.

MARCH 2022: Back on duty on Regent, on board Seven Seas Explorer, on a 17-night trans-Atlantic cruise from Miami to Civitivecchia (for Rome) via Madeira, Malaga and Cartagena in Spain, a first visit to Palma de Mallorca, then Marseilles in France and Monte Carlo in Monaco. *

JULY 2022: Another assignment on Viking Orion in the Inside Passage of Alaska, with return visits to Ketchikan, Sitka, Juneau, Icy Strait Point, Skagway, Valdez and Seward, I stayed on for the return trip, although my contribution was cut short when I was confined to cabin for 6 days having finally succumbed to the dreaded Covid! *

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2022: On Viking Star from Bergen to Montreal, via Iceland, Greenland, a first visit to L'Anse Aux Meadows on Newfoundland, and a successful whalewatch from Saguenay. We then stayed on the ship for Eastern Seaboard Explorer from Montreal to New York with a first visit to Gaspé and our first transit of the Cape Cod Canal.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022: Back to Viking Orion for a much amended cruise with Russia and Japan off-limits for very different reasons. It included a perfect 13-day Alaskan cruise, including our first visit to Glacier Bay and return visits to Kodiak Island and Dutch Harbor, followed by 7 days at sea to Hawaii, with stops on Kaua'i and Maui islands, and a flight home from Honolulu.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2023: Began a busy year with two back to back Amazon and Caribbean cruises on Viking Sea, enjoying return visits to Santarem, Parintins and Manaus in Brazil, as well as Puerto Rico, Antigua, St Lucia and Barbados, but with winds stopping both attempts to land on Iles du Salut. *

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2023: i joined Viking's new ship, Viking Mars, for two Australia & New Zealand cruises*, stopping at Melbourne and Hobart in Tasmania, then Dunedin, Lyttleton (for Christchurch) Wellington, Tauranga and Auckland in New Zealand (although the return itinerary had to miss Hobart because of engine issues, and replaced Lyttleton with the much nicer port of Ataroa, because of a broken-down ship on our Lyttleton jetty). I then remained on the ship for Komodo & The Australian Coast*, which included first visits for me to Newcastle, Townsville and and TI (Thursday Island) - which I especially enjoyed - plus a first visit to the island of Rinca, adjacent to Komodo, for much more 'sanitised' (and less exciting) sightings of Komodo Dragons, ending in Bali.

MAY/JULY 2023: Next up was eight weeks helping to break in Viking's latest ocean ship, Viking Saturn, beginning with Barcelona to Reykjavik, via Valencia, Malaga, Lisbon, Lexois, La Coruña, Dublin and Liverpool - certainly a varied cruise *. This was followed by a very weather-disrupted cruise from Reykjavik to New York * (for the ship's naming ceremony), missing no less than 5 ports but managing Seydisfjördur, Akureyri and Isafjördur, then Halifax in Canada. The reverse itinerary back to Reykjavik was much more successful, adding a first visit to Louisbourg on Cape Breton island, plus Djupivogr and Heimaey in Iceland to the itinerary.

100th Cruise: I then stayed on Viking Saturn for what I reckon was my 100th cruise as a guest speaker, on a totally new Viking itinerary, Iceland & Norways's Arctic Explorer from Reykjavik to Bergen in glorious weather with amazing wildlife sightings. We stopped at Isafjördur in Iceland, had a stunningly sunny sail by of Jan Mayen Island, before an overnight stay in Longyearbyen (complete with walrus watching), and the cloud also parted as we sailed past Bjornøya island to Honnigsvåg. The trip then continued via Tromsø, Narvik, Leknes on the Lofoten islands, and a rainy Geiranger to Bergen.

JULY/AUGUST 2023: Iceland's Majestic Landscapes* on Viking Jupiter, from Bergen to Reykjavik and back again, returning to 3 ports in Norway, Torshavn on the Faroe Islands and 3 ports in Iceland.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023: Two more cruises on Seven Seas Voyager, the first returning to West Africa, with stops in Cadiz, the Canary Islands, and São Vicente in then return visits to Dakar (Senegal), Banjul (the Gambia), Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Sekondi-Takoradi (Ghana), Lomé (Togo), and São Tome island, Walvis Bay in Namibia and Cape Town. Despite a severe knee injury, I was able to maintain my speaker duties on the subsequent Cape Town to Cape Town cruise, calling again at Walvis Bay, Gqeberha (the new name for Port Elizabeth), Durban, Maputo in Mozambique and Richards Bay. *

 

* = with Michael on sole speaking duty; on all others Sue joined me on wildlife-watching duties on deck.