My 17th Solar Eclipse Expedition

My 12th successfully-observed Total Eclipse in a Row

On the way to Patagonia, I spent two weeks in Peru.  The classic Machu Picchu shot!

I don’t think anyone would argue with me if I said that eclipse chasers really want to see the eclipse. But can we anthropomorphize the eclipse and say, it really wants to be seen?

The TSE of 11 July 2010 was visible from Tahiti and the surrounding islands – across Easter Island through the south Pacific – ending on the very tip of South America - in Patagonia. Eighteen months before the eclipse, I was booked on a small clipper ship out of Tahiti – we were going to sail the remote Tuamotu Islands of French Polynesia for a week – then see the eclipse in the ocean off Tahiti’s south coast. The perfect plan. I was totally pumped. The idea of sailing around these islands en route to totality was a life dream come true. I love trains. And I love sail boats.

But no sail ever happened! They cancelled it months in advance. Apparently, the ship operator decided to redeploy the vessel to other, richer waters and dumped 75 chasers from the manifest. Nice.

I was then without an eclipse plan. And I let it slide. For months. Pretty soon, all the other Tahiti cruises were sold out. I checked into the tours and the music festival happening on Easter Island – loved the sound of it – but too expensive. (The greed of the tour operators and the airlines early in the selling turned away many people, and in the final few weeks before the eclipse they couldn’t give away their seats. The throngs of people that were supposed to show up on Rapa Nui for this eclipse never materialized). So I booked the next best option – a reasonably priced eclipse flight – a private charter into the path of the eclipse at 35,000 ft. A guaranteed cloudless eclipse! We couldn’t miss! So I booked passage to El Calafate – a sleepy cottage town in Patagonia – where the flight would take off on 11 July 2010.

But two days before the eclipse – they cancelled the flight. Problems with the aircraft, we were told. I was halfway around the world already and feared I would miss my first Total Eclipse in 20 years.

But against all odds, the eclipse was seen in a pristine sky above the Andes Mountains. This was the eclipse that wouldn’t take no for an answer.