Today’s Chronicle can be found here.
With no roosters to wake us up – and the gentle wash of waves to lull us to sleep – we had no trouble sleeping all the way until (checks clock) 5:30 am? Again!?
This is becoming irritating, though soon our clocks will be moving forward. Perhaps that will break the habit?
Timing is tight today, so we’re off to La Terrazza for breakfast. It’s much the same as it’s been before – there’s the usual selection of yoghurts, pastries, bagels, breads, and so on and so forth.
No serve-yourself berries, but I was able to get a small bowl upon request. The strawberries were in good shape but the raspberries were past their prime. Might be best to focus on tropical fruit this trip. Otherwise, I had a smoked salmon bagel with cream cheese.
No food photos this time around – maybe next time. But we did manage to get a shot of some of the atolls as we make our way toward Rangaroa:
The morning is chock-full of briefings. We started with the usual zodiac briefing, which is old hat for most of those present – but not all, as there are some who seemed dismayed to learn that the zodiacs would be the only way off the boat for most of the trip.
We will again repeat our perennial suggestion that Silversea Expeditions should have a mandatory video and waiver to signify passengers know what they are getting into. Expedition cruising is still relatively unknown in the broader travel world, and so it’s important that passengers are aware of its unique physical challenges before they book an expedition cruise.
(And to be clear – full support for those with disabilities who book the cruise knowing that they will only be able to make selective use of excursions and activities. There’s a huge range of reasons to go on an expedition cruise! But everyone should know what they’re getting into in advance.)
After came the kayaking brief. How nice to not have to worry about dry suits this time around! I signed the usual paperwork, though I’m unsure whether I’ll put my name down to kayak this trip. Too many beautiful islands to visit. But I won’t even have the option to go kayaking unless I fill out the form, so the form was dutifully filled out.
Next came the snorkelling brief. Though we’d been concerned we wouldn’t have many chances to snorkel, it sounds like there should be at least two or three snorkelling excursions.
We covered the basic hand signals – okay, in distress, come pick me up – and talked about the way that Silversea organizes their snorkelling zodiacs, such as their demarcated safety area and their special water-hammock that makes it easier to get into and out of the water.
Hello, Rangiroa!
The expedition staff were going to start handing out snorkelling equipment soon, but they were also holding a round of cornhole up on the pool deck so we also tried to squeeze that in. They initially attempted to distribute the snorkelling gear by deck number, and then switched to zodiac group – but it was an efficient process and it wasn’t long before our zodiac group was called.
We only needed fins and gear bags, so that went quickly. They have a huge variety of sizes, all the way down to size 3.5 for the fins. We then continued with admin, dropping off our VAT forms – after first confirming everything was proper and correct – and following up once more regarding our possible upgrade to the Owner’s Suite.
Because we’re not willing to pay list price, the Reception team must unfortunately wait until Head Office is back in the office before they can cut a deal. This seems a bit silly when you’re running a multi-billion dollar cruise line – either empower your people on the ground to cut a deal, or have someone on hand 7 days a week during some set business hours. Anyway, no deal yet.
Off to La Terrazza for lunch. I was more inclined toward the Restaurant, but I was voted down – though I was pleasantly surprised to find that they had both Tandoori chicken and some truly excellent sushi.
The joys of traversing the Pacific! We’ll keep an eye on the menu in the future, but I won’t complain if future lunches include copious amounts of sushi-grade tuna.
Not to mention the molten chocolate dessert:
A bit more reading / writing / homework, interspersed with some field testing of my new 180 – 600 mm lens:
Then it was time to start getting ready for our snorkelling excursion. All of our snorkelling gear went into the bags, and I debated whether to pack the good camera. Ultimately I did. What’s the point in bringing a good camera if you don’t use it? Salt water be damned.
We went down to the gangway expecting we would be able to leave a bit early – they had opened boarding already for those who simply wanted to head to the beach, after all – only to be told that the 2 pm snorkel group would have to wait until 2 pm. So wait we did.
Zodiac time! Always feels good to get back onboard. Despite our anchorage in the heart of the Rangiroa lagoon, we still had somewhere around 1.5 metres of swell which made for a bit of a dicey boarding and zodiac cruise. But we managed all right.
Expedition activities were in full swing when we arrived, and we were quickly shunted over to one of the snorkelling boats. We waited for a second zodiac worth of passengers, and then were soon on our way. Another chance to take a few photos:
Thankfully we only had perhaps a five minute boat ride ahead of us before we reached the little Motu that would be the site of our snorkelling excursion. Our guides cautioned us that we would not have long, as we would need to be back at the dock by 3:30 pm, and it was already past 2:30.
We dove in, but it soon became clear that there was a very wide range of snorkelling abilities amonst the Silversea passengers. It took some time to get everyone oriented, but then we went to explore the reef. There was a huge variety of marine life on display, including parrotfish, triggerfish, butterflyfish, unicornfish, flutnosed, mullet and more.
Our only complaint – they fed bread to the fish! It’s a bad idea on several levels – not only does it encourage the fish to seek out humans, it has no nutritional value (and is detrimental to their health) and can cause algae blooms that could damage the coral itself.
We don’t really blame Silversea for this – they can only work with the local operators they have to hand – but we’ll still send an e-mails to various organizations to see if this can be stopped. Coral Gardeners tops our contact list: why spend tens of millions repairing the reef if you can avoid damaging it in the first place?
There was a bit of a scramble as the guests got into the water, and the snorkelling leader tried to keep everyone in one place. Some guests were comfortable with free diving and others reliant on pool noodles.
We wondered if it might have made sense to have organized the guests by ability level, but it wouldn’t have been fair to the tour providers to have put all the beginners in a single boat. (Mostly, we were just spoiled by the private and small group tours we had done in Moorea.)
But we got there in the end! And we got to do some lovely snorkelling:
45 minutes later, it was time to head back to the boat. We could have stuck around the beach for a while, but we were soaked and wanted to get showered and changed in time for trivia. Wetsuits have absolutely made these snorkel adventures more comfortable for my wife and daughter so we highly recommend bringing them if you tend to get cold easily. Silversea does not provide any wetsuits except on Origin in the Galapagos.
We reboarded the zodiac and set off once more:
We had a brief detour to make along the way to drop off some guests who were headed to the glass bottom boat excursion:
Interesting that Silversea has their own glass bottom zodiacs for these kinds of expeditions.
But to get the other passengers aboard, the staff rafted up the two zodiacs and had the passengers shift across. It was a bit dicey, if I’m being honest – there was a moment when I thought one of the guests might fall between the two zodiacs.
But the expedition staff persevered and everyone made it across. I’d be quite curious to know whether those guests feel like it was a grand adventure or an unnecessary risk.
Off to trivia! We have met up with some of the guests from the Grand Voyage and some other guests who were aboard the Cape to Cape. Our son’s knowledge of Greek and Roman mythology had developed a mythos of its own, and he has become a sought-out trivia partner – I’m happy to be along for the ride!
Two of our partners were away on a special event for the Grand Voyage, but to their credit they showed up shortly after trivia had begun. They found the special event to be quite disappointing – apparently everyone got soaked during the boat ride, even with waterproof jackets on.
We’re off to a good start, though, managing the place second overall. My son correctly named the Sahara as the largest warm desert in the world, while I was able to answer the riddle as to which two words refer to a Canadian whiskey or a generic cola depending on their order. (Answer: Crown and royal.)
Off to the recap and briefing!
Peter informed us that the sea state should be moderate over the next few days, with swells of around 1.5 to 2 metres.
Then on to the recaps. Alex – not pictured – provided a fascinating look at the history of metal in French Polynesia, which has long been prized due to its extremely limited availability in these islands. Surprisingly there was some metal prior to documented European contact, which they obtained from shipwrecks.
Damon then provided a recap of our snorkelling excursion. I was surprised to hear that the unicornfish that we saw in such abundance are actually quite rare to find in other regions:
As we remain suite-less, I then went off in search of laundry – and managed to scrounge a free washer.
There were some technical issues with one of the washer / dryer pairs, so I popped up to Reception to let them know. Here I was offered the chance to move across to the Owner’s Suite early with the expectation that our bid would be accepted come Monday – very kind of them! – but I couldn’t bear the thought of having to move back if the price wasn’t right, so I politely declined. We’ll see what happens on Monday…
Off to dinner at the grill – with pool-front seating, no less:
I’m surprised the kept the pool filled for our initial sea crossing, but it does make sense given our favourable forecast.
Tonight’s menu:
My son and daughter each had the tenderloin:
My wife had the coconut shrimp to start:
And I had an order of the prawns for my starter:
Followed by the grouper, which was delicious:
The kids each had cinnamon and vanilla ice cream with caramel and chocolate sauce for their desserts:
There’s no accounting for tastes…
My wife had the apple rose:
Wondering if they’ve changed this one, as I don’t recall it being set in pastry before. Either way, she said it was quite good.
And I had the cheesecake:
Service was excellent this meal – I must’ve been asked at least five times if I wanted more wine.
But all the sun and snorkelling had caught up to us at this stage, so it was time to head off to bed. Looking forward to our first lazy sea day tomorrow!