Tasmania to Tokyo – Silver Moon – Day 19 can be found here.
Today’s Chronicle can be found here.
Not only is it a sea day, we also get to roll back the clocks to Adelaide time – only 30 minutes, mind you, but a sleep-in is a sleep-in.
Off to La Terrazza for breakfast this morning. It’s packed, and yet the service seems just as fast as what we’ve previously enjoyed on expedition vessels. The quality is also modestly improved. The selection is more or less the same. I have my usual of yoghurt, granola and berries along with two eggs over-easy and sourdough toast.
A few of us then head down to SALT Labs for our cooking class. We’re making Vietnamese lettuce wraps this morning:
These are done with barramundi as opposed to pork in the traditional Vietnamese fashion. Beyond the joy of cooking a new meal, we also learn some new tricks – like how it’s best to add garlic and ginger closer to the end so as to better preserve their flavour.
A few points of administration from Chanelle, head of SALT Labs: bookings can be requested through Reception or your butler but only Chanelle can actually confirm, so best to request classes through her; usually the doors will open 10 minutes in advance; you will need to sign a waiver indicating that you have not recently suffered any gastrointestinal issues (and she will check with the doctor in advance of each class); and as a result of the above, no one can be swapped in within an hour of the start of class.
I somehow forget to take a photo of the end result, but here’s what the filling looks like:
The end result is very tasty!
We then head to the lounge for Ray Balley’s presentation on the history of Kangaroo Island:
Kangaroo Island is Australia’s 3rd largest island (after Tasmania and Melville) at approx 4,400 square kilometres but only has a population of around 4,600 people. He covers quite a bit of history, and we’re interested to learn that people have not inhabited the island for thousands of years prior to Australian settlement in the 19th century.
Though if we’re being brutally honest, this lecture is a bit of a miss – Ray incorrectly states that the whale in Moby Dick is a baleen whale (it’s a sperm whale), and that quokkas have been reintroduced to Kangaroo Island (they have not been introduced to the wild – only at the wildlife park). Hmm.
Off for lunch at Spaccanapoli. I have the Daviola:
My wife has the Blanco Regina:
After, we go for a swim amidst the 2 1/2 metre swells. The pool is that much longer than on Cloud or Wind, so the force of the waves has that much more runway with which to build. The kids quite enjoy it, though it’s not particularly warm and the ambient temperature is somewhere around 17 Celsius or 65 Farenheit. They still last around 20 to 25 minutes before heading back for a shower.
My daughter then heads off to Dolce Vita for a charm bracelet making workshop:
And the end result:
The couple running this workshop will be on the ship all the way to Singapore, so there should be plenty more opportunities for our daughter to hone her artistic skills.
Meanwhile, my son gets a bit of homework done before heading up to Arts Cafe to enjoy a slice of chocolate pound cake. I am told that a skewer of chocolate covered fruit contains berries, whereas it turns out to be chocolate-covered grapes. While grapes are technically a kind of berry, I remain steadfast in my opinion that chocolate-covered grapes are an affront to both humanity and nature.
Down to Dolce Vita for bingo. We each get two cards and do several different games in rapid-fire succession. Single-row, double-row, blackout, second place for blackout, single row, another single row, finally followed by ‘last one standing’. We don’t win, but we do come close. There’s always next time.
Next, Cruise Director Zaid hosts team trivia. We were contacted in advance by some of our former trivia foes who were looking to build a team, and another woman joins us who was referred by some previous cruising companions of ours. Have I mentioned lately how much I appreciate the extended Silversea family? We soon have a team of six-and-a-half – my daughter generally counting as half a person for trivia purposes.
We could potentially accept two more members but then we wouldn’t have room to accept any staff members who might be free to join, nor would we be immune to criticism should anyone attempt to claim that our daughter was one person too many. So I expect we’ll stay as we are – the Magnificent Six-and-a-Half.
Trivia with 550 passengers takes on a more competitive edge. My son correctly identifies the Roman numerals for 444 (CDXLIV) and the Greek goddess of wisdom (Athena), but we incorrectly state that the initial Rocky movie was released in the 1980s when it was released in the 1970s. We still manage to tie for first!
Off for dinner at Atlantide. Tonight’s menu:
I start with the scallops:
My wife has the goat cheese floral:
And the kids have the tomato soup:
We then move on to mains. My wife and daughter both have the prawns:
While I have a large order of the sriracha spiced shrimp skewers:
And our son has the beef tenderloin:
Then dessert!
My wife and I have the peanut bar:
Our son has the caramel orange and praline:
And our daughter has a lemon sorbet (not pictured).
It’s a fabulous meal. Service slows a bit when we get to dessert, but that’s not surprising given that most people are still waiting for their mains at that stage. We’re still out of there in a little over 90 minutes, which is brisk by Silversea standards.
Also, the quality of the food is definitely a step up when compared to the Restaurant on both the Wind and the Cloud – not a knock against the staff on either of those vessels, they simply don’t have the provisioning, space or staff of a classic ship.
It’s then time to retire to our spacious balcony with a glass of champagne:
Off to Kangaroo Island tomorrow for a seven-hour wildlife tour with RAD KI.
(Hopefully, at least – high swells cancelled the Silver Moon’s previous attempt to land at Kangaroo Island…)