Antarctica to Zimbabwe – Day 33 – Silver Wind, Antarctic Peninsula can be found here.
Leisurely wake-up at around 8:30 am this morning, then off to the Restaurant for breakfast.
I feel mixed emotions while regarding this beautiful bowl of yoghurt and berries – Silversea’s free hand with the perishable produce is yet another sign that this leg of our trip is coming to an end.
My wife and I then enjoyed our first round of eggs Benedict since boarding:
Truly delicious!
Off to Panorama for a bit of homework and writing, then time for Italian trivia, run by future cruise manager Joshua.
We found this challenging given our limited knowledge of Italy, but we still came within a few points of first place. We were surprised to learn that Genoa is the birthplace of denim jeans, and that Italian Americans used to smuggle salami in caciocavallo cheese.
Lunchtime! There’s an American buffet today:
I introduced the kids to corn dogs – neither particularly cared for them – and otherwise ordered off the regular menu.
I had the cod fritters:
And followed that with the veal:
It was good, but it would have been better without the peas in my opinion.
Back to Panorama where we played Dungeons & Dragons for a while – the kids fought off a group of animated scarecrows and then made their way to the village of Vallaki where they were able to inform the storekeepers of an ongoing burglary attempt, earning favourable pricing and a place to rest for the night.
Then it was time for the final writing workshop, in which expedition guide Jess took us through the cruise day-by-day and asked to recount memories from each of the stops. Despite blogging daily, I still had challenges recalling some of the earlier days of the trip – definitely a worthwhile exercise.
Jess then shared the final, polished versions of our pictures and poems:
A lovely keepsake from our trip, plus we’re quite proud to have our poems pinned to the board in the conference room.
We’ve thoroughly enjoyed having a writer aboard the Wind – both to run workshops like this, and to offer another perspective. I hope that Silversea will consider some kind of permanent writer position aboard each of their expedition ships.
Meanwhile, my wife and kids took in a geology workshop:
They really enjoyed being able to view the various minerals under microscope, and being able to hold an actual meteorite! (Though this was limited to those under 16 years of age.)
I wrestled with laundry and blogging, while my wife and kids went off to Martin’s lecture – “Finding Home”, on the topic of how migratory birds are able to find their way.
They were intrigued to learn that scientists are still not entirely certain how birds navigate, as there seem to be multiple factors. It’s likely not magnetic – except possibly for homing pigeons – but other factors might include smell and infrasound.
Juvenile birds seem to only be able to orient, while adult birds can both orient and navigate. So if you took an adult bird from Oregon to New York it would still be able to get to California but a juvenile would just head south to Florida. Fascinating stuff.
Back to the room for a quick change of clothes, and then off to the briefing.
The expedition team is going to offer several different excursions after we arrive early in Puerto Williams. These include a 12 km hike (with 600 metre elevation change) to Cerro Bandera, a shorter version of this same hike without the final climb, a nature walk, a birding walk, and free exploration of town.
We’re planning to do the Cerro Bandera hike, but we’re glad to have the option to transition to the shorter version of the hike if needed.
Sea conditions are starting to deteriorate, but we went up to the Observation Lounge for a cocktail party specifically for the ‘In-Transit’ passengers.
Here we learned there should be roughly 180 passengers on the next voyage – which should open up some new landing options in South Georgia – and that there would be another excursion in Puerto Williams during the in-transit day, but that the expedition team was still working out the details.
It was great seeing who would be carrying on along with us in the next leg, though the Observation Lounge was a challenging spot for a cocktail party given the large and building swells. Even some of the expedition staff excused themselves early, and the party cleared off shortly after 7 pm.
Off to dinner! Entertainment hostess Chloe and guitarist Igor graciously agreed to dine with us in La Terrazza. We were surprised to learn that most of the entertainment hosts aren’t actually singers – though that has definitely opened up further opportunities for Chloe.
We also learned that the entertainment host on expedition ships has a staff of roughly 4 people, compared to close to 40 on the larger ships. Although her resources are more limited here, she very much enjoys the challenge of trying to do more with less.
They also mentioned that Silversea previously had separated out the enlisted mess from the officer mess, but were in the process of uniting the messes into a single restaurant for all crew and were seeking suggestions for a new name. I proposed “The Total Mess”, but in all seriousness Igor had put up some very thoughtful suggestions. Hope they pick one of his!
Igor is from Brazil, and suggested we visit Salvador in the state of Bahia – which is known for the strong African influence on its cuisine, music and culture. It also sounds like both Igor and Chloe will be on the Cloud during our cruise in October. Great news considering the tremendous jobs they have done with entertainment, and how they’ve made the kids feel so welcome – we’re really looking forward to it!
At this point, the sea state was truly beginning to deteriorate and the kids were absolutely wrecked.
Time for bed!
Continue reading Antarctica to Zimbabwe – Day 35 – Silver Wind, Beagle Channel.