Today’s Chronicle can be found here.
There’s still a week to go in the cruise, and yet it already feels like it’s winding down – particularly with snorkel gear return scheduled for this morning.
And while we still very much hope to carry on with all the remaining planned excursions – particularly a landing at Robinson Crusoe Island – it now feels like we’ve gotten everything we wanted out of this cruise. So we’re going to treat the remainder of this voyage as a bonus.
First order of the agenda is a fantastically long sleep-in. We didn’t wake until 8:45 am. Words cannot describe how glorious that felt.
My wife headed to Nick’s 9 am lecture, Marine Reptiles of the South Pacific. She learned that sea snakes – especially the yellow-bellied species – live almost everywhere on Earth, including the Atlantic Ocean where they were introduced by people. (Presumably accidentally because what kind of monster would you do that on purpose?) Thankfully, fatalties from sea snakes are rare except in India – with around 33,000 sea snake deaths per year. However, sea snakes do often wash up on beaches when ill or injured so stay away from anything that looks like a brightly coloured tangle of rope.
Crocodiles are responsible for far more fatalities, especially in East Timor where they are now responsible for roughly a death per week. My wife much preferred learing about turtles (vs. terrapins vs. tortoises). Nick concluded his lecture with slides about how enormously prevalent the plastic waste problem is globablly, and a reminder that the top products that end up in the ocean are plastic grocery bags and plastic water bottles – so please stop using them!
Next on the agenda is a long-awaited bridge tour, for which we gathered at the pool bar at 9:50 am. There were a few stragglers, but we started to head inside shortly before 10 am as planned.
Night shift officers sleep during the day, so it’s vitally important to be as quiet as possible while heading through the hallways toward the bridge. The halls are lined with past photos and awards, which provide a lovely sense of history – particularly in the case of an older vessel like the Cloud.
We entered the bridge itself – no photographs allowed – and began the tour. Some interesting facts we learned this time around:
– We have covered more than 3,350 nautical miles since the start of our voyage. (By my estimate, the total distance for this cruise will be roughly the same as our Cape to Cape cruise earlier this year at arond 6,500 nautical miles);
– The compass in the observation lounge is an actual functional compass, which is connected to the bridge;
– However, the magnetic compass is less reliable than the GPS compass near the poles due to their proximity to their magnetic field;
– The Onyx marine navigation system includes the previous paths of past expedition ships, including those outside Silversea. This can be particularly useful when trying to figure out routes around ice in polar regions. They will also occasionally send out zodiacs to manually add in data via USB drive;
– The ship actually has a sextant on board, and Captain Freddie is going to make one of the bridge officers use it to work out the ship’s location during the sea days;
– We’ve had to alter course south slightly in order to avoid a potential satellite debris area. As Captain Freddie said, “Elon Musk landing in the pool isn’t going to be good for us.” This will also help to partly avoid a rough weather system that’s coming through;
– The engine uses sea water for cooling, so it tends to be more efficient in cooler water;
– Salt forms bubbles in frozen sea water, which is what makes it possible for ships to break through;
– The stabilizer takes away at least a knot of speed;
– The device embedded on the Cloud’s windshield is a heater, and not a microphone or a loudspeaker as I first suspected; and
– The officer who led our bridge tour on the Cloud is the same one who gave us our tour on the Wind! He recognized the kids, though he couldn’t believe how much our son had grown. (Which, truthfully, is a lot.)
Then it was time to quietly depart. Huge thanks to the officers of the Cloud (and Captain Freddie) for organizing the tours, which are incredibly informative for adults and kids alike.
The best part? We finished in time for crew tug-of-war:
The first round was between the Housekeeping Department:
And Dining staff:
Dining won! Next up was the Expedition Team versus Dining.
Dining pulled the expedition team across – but the match was nullified for having too many participants.
Round 2 of Expedition Team versus Dining:
Derry bringing 110%:
Expedition Team wins!
After, they set up a ‘Sunday market’ to showcase the various departments – including some games, such as ring toss:
The boutique brought out their wares:
And there was a towel folding demonstration:
Our daughter made a bird!
Zagara spa also had a few items out:
And there were wine deals from the sommelier team:
They’re offering half price dining on La Dame for the rest of the voyage – but with the seas growing rougher, we decided to leave it at just one visit this voyage.
Lunch at La Terrazza, and then up to the pool deck. The loungers were all taken for once – not entirely surprising given how much space was taken up by the Sunday market – but it didn’t really matter as I was only there to swim.
The pool was a little sloshier than usual, but it was good to stretch out after a busy series of hikes. (And by the time I got out of the pool, loungers had become available.) It’s been truly lovely to see everyone taking their stuff with them when they leave rather than “reserving” loungers for hours on end.
I finished up with some time in the hot tub, and then a trip to the steam room. Very relaxing.
Back to the room for some more reading / writing / homework, followed by free time for the kids. My wife and I once more ordered pisco sours and enjoyed some time out on the balcony, gazing out upon the sparse Pacific horizon.
Very little in the way of birds or marine life in this stretch of the Pacific – which makes it strangely meditative. Swells are notionally going to 2.5 metres later today, but they are mostly following seas so it still feels calm.
Our slothful ways continued until early evening, when we went to the Restaurant for dinner.
Tonight’s menu:
Good timing – this should let us capitalize upon our daughter’s newfound interest in shrimp.
I had the soft shell crab:
There were a few bits of shell in there, but it was still very tasty – particularly with the sweet chilli sauce!
My wife and daughter both had the Asian spiced shrimp cocktail:
They both really enjoyed it.
I had the prawn curry:
While my wife had the venison:
And I had sambirano for dessert:
Very tasty indeed.
Back off to our room where I was bombarded with reminders regarding the soon-expiring holds for our umpteen million accidentally-reserved staterooms:
And then it was time for bed. More of the same on the agenda for tomorrow – plus a spa visit!