Special Operations

Several years ago, the United States Marine Corps at the New River facility in North Carolina developed a super powerful special operations boat. Each one can be dropped by parachute from an airplane, can travel up to 50 miles an hour and can hold 10 marines. The special operations boat can stop within two boat lengths. It is powered by two 450 hp Volvo Penta engines. The design for this was shared with the NATO allies of the United States, and now the boats for our European allies are made in Finland. Torstein Hagen, CEO of Viking Cruises, saw these boats and wanted them for his expedition ships. He added half a million dollars worth of extra equipment, such as shock absorbers on each seat. Now both of the expedition ships have two of these boats on board. Today we got to ride in one. Our pilot took it outside the bay into the Atlantic Ocean and opened ’er up. It was an absolute blast! I only wish Glenda’s father, an avid power boater, could have enjoyed the ride with us.

We retraced the course we took this morning on the Zodiac around the old fortress, but as we passed the old 1734 lighthouse, a fellow passenger, a geologist, spoke up. He told us that the spit of land on which the lighthouse sits is made of rock totally unlike the surrounding rock. In fact it is the northern tip of a mass of rock that was pushed northward the last time North America and Africa banged up against each other. “What we see here,” he said, “is the extreme northern tip of that mass of rock we call the Appalachian Mountains.”

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