It’s 8pm and for the last hour a cruise ship full of strangers has become a very tight-knit and wholesome astronomy club.
Almost 1,800 of us passengers on Tui’s Marella Discovery 2 are gathered together on the top deck in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, staring up at the same patch of sky.
People are pointing, strangers are chatting and every few seconds someone shouts for their partner, their children or a nearby stranger to peep through their solar eclipse glasses as the orange-lit crescent of the moon edges closer to the sun. Some are on FaceTime with loved ones in the UK who won’t see what we’re about to see.
Shorts
Comments of “Woah”, “Can you see it?” and “It’s so close” can be heard across the open deck of the ship, which has positioned itself off the coast of Spain so that passengers can witness the moment of totality.
