During our day at sea on our way to the Dominican Republic, Graham and I decided to explore the Adonia with our camera in tow. We were looking high and low for hidden treasures and fun snapshots the entire morning walking the different floors of the ship. We found beautiful architectural details in the ballroom, fellow travelers enjoying themselves and fun tips in the curiosity boxes Fathom had hidden throughout the ship. Little did we know we were in store for a once in a lifetime experience during what felt like a normal day out shooting.
We were on the sun deck as we heard an increase in the crowd noise and distinctive gasps of amazement. As we looked around many of our fellow passengers were jostling each other and pointing towards the sky. We were out in the middle of the Atlantic on a bright, clear day so there shouldn’t have been anything, but as when we looked to the sky we saw something completely unexpected.
High overhead was a blinding sun sitting at the center of a perfectly circular rainbow.
While we were admiring how clear all the colors of the spectrum were, the captain came on over the loudspeaker. He shared with us how rare of an phenomenon this truly was— in over 30 years of sailing this was only the second time he had ever seen a complete halo around the sun.
A circular rainbow, or solar halo, is caused when the sun’s rays are diffused through ice crystals in the clouds high in the atmosphere. The clouds may not even be visible to the naked eye.
Luckily we already had our camera out and ready to go to take this amazing picture.
