Sailors in the South Pacific were surprised this month to find themselves sailing through a sea of stone.
Australian couple Michael and Larissa Hoult were on their yacht en route to Fiji from Vava'u when they entered a 150-square-kilometer “pumice raft” – a floating mass of pumice stone believed to come from an underwater volcanic eruption.
“We had heard the previous day on email of pumice fields," the couple wrote on Cruiser Sat Net, an online blog for sailors. As they approached the field, they started seeing floating rocks, some as large as tennis balls.
“We had faint but distinct smell of sulfur,” they wrote.
