Tasmania to Tokyo – At Sea – Day 35 can be found here.
Today’s Chronicles can be found here.
Travel is a funny thing. 48 hours earlier, we couldn’t wait to set foot on Bali. Now we are profoundly grateful to be back at sea again for one of three remaining double-day stretches.
Our relief is due in part to us having been laid low by our beach day – a few of us got too much sun, and the heat has been constant. Funny to think that we can handle a 19 kilometer Patagonian hike and 5 metre swells, only to suffer from sunburn in the surf – but the sun can really sneak up on you. (Particularly me, as I get a sunburn if I so much as think warm thoughts.)
We’re grateful that all of our vehicles have been well air conditioned, though that transition from too-hot to too-cold creates its own form of strain.
Anyway – back to our sea day.
We start with an extra-long sleep-in, and our usual breakfast. There’s a line-up to enter La Terrazza when we’re leaving at 9:30 am – clearly our 9 am arrival is the way to do it.
Next, a trip to the pool deck to join a bridge tour. No photos allowed on the bridge, sadly, though the lack of picture-taking lets me focus on Captain Albici’s spiel, and his subtle sense of humour. He sprinkles in some great one-liners as he’s giving the tour:
“I enjoy my 4 am coffees on the bridge. Well, I enjoy the coffee.”
“There are 11 computers. If one gets drunk, the other 10 say ‘go to sleep’.”
Regarding using bow thrusters early in the morning: “If I cannot sleep, I don’t want anyone else sleeping either.”
Captain Albici’s sense of humour can also be heard in his daily updates. During one he said, “We are currently making 16 knots. It’s a pleasant 21 Celsius in the water, but I recommend staying on board.”
Returning to the bridge tour – ships like the Silver Moon no longer carry paper charts. Everything is instead done electronically. The system is so sensitive that you can zoom in to the point where you can actually see the Silver Moon moving in real time. A safe corridor is defined for the route – it’s currently 1 mile on each side. The officer on the bridge has freedom to maneuvre as needed within this corridor, but if they need to deviate they have to speak with the captain.
Our daughter gets to turn the wheel – which is on autopilot, so it does not impact the ship’s course. The Captain notes that sudden, Formula-One style turns will send passengers from one side of the ship to the other.
He also shows us the auxiliary controls, which are often used when mooring the ship. Not only are there windows to the front, side, and rear, there is even a panel on the floor so you can see down to the ocean roughly 40 metres below. There are up to 8 officers on the bridge when they are bringing in the ship. We get to step over this clear panel, which gives an intense feeling of the ship’s height.
The harbour pilots do not take the Moon’s controls, as they would be unfamiliar with them. Instead, they share their knowledge of the harbour, help with translation and effectively act as the host nation’s representative on board.
There are 4 generators on board that put out 6,500 kw of electricity. This electricity is used to run the ship’s propellers, rather than the generators directly driving the motors. Generally they use 3 of the 4 generators, though they used all four for our emergency run to Espereance. The ship generally burns 3 tonnes of fuel per hour.
Despite our heightened speed during the emergency run, the stabilizers nevertheless remained deployed the whole time as they were concerned about the risk of further injuries while moving at high speeds. The Captain confirms that they had requested a helicopter airlift, but that Western Australia did not have a heliocopter available. They moved one from one city to the next, but the Silver Moon still proved to be the fastest option.
There are generally 2 to 3 medical emergencies on average over the course of a 2 month-long contract. Contract durations for captains vary – sometimes they are 2 months, sometimes 3 months. Captains stay on a single ship for an extended period. Captain Albici will be moving to the Silver Whisper next.
The Captain has the ice training needed to captain in Antarctica, but much prefers the non-polar itineraries – he found himself staring at trees once they returned to Chile after his training.
He notes that for certain African itineraries – particularly in West Africa – anti-piracy measures may be required, namely asking guests to close curtains at night. Cruise ships will also be in immediate contact with NATO vessels in the region to further ensure their security. The Captain’s favourite route is in the Mediterranean as it’s only an hour’s flight home for him at the end.
We also learn about the ‘squat effect’ – larger vessels creates a pocket of reduced pressure which actually increase their draft as they move through shallow waters. This effect has actually caused maritime disasters in the not-too-distant past – the Queen Elizabeth 2 ran aground in 1992 due to the squat effect.
The ship’s mooring lines can hold a massive amount of weight – but they also carry a tremendous amount of tension. They occasionally break, and it sounds like a cannon shot. If a sailor is in the area when this happens, the end result can be lethal. Sailing is a dangerous business.
This is now the third time we’ve toured the bridge of a Silversea ship – and we learn something new every time.
My wife is off for another acupuncture appointment, so I take the kids to La Terrazza. We pass Neptune and his associates as they head off for the equator party. We’ve already crossed the equator several times on the Silver Origin – and have no desire to kiss a fish, so we plan to swing by at lunch to see how it’s going. The Chronicles mention games and what-not, so we’re hoping for something similar to the mid-Atlantic Ridge party we had on the Silver Wind.
The buffet lunch is a buffet lunch – they do have some particularly nice desserts, though, including this chocolate tart:
We wrap lunch only to discover that the games of the Equator Crossing have already drawn to an end. Apparently there was some fish-kissing, some shot-taking, a tug of war challenge and some jumping in the pool. In retrospect, I can see how challenging it would be to run 500-some passengers through a series of games. Ah, well – perhaps there will be some other parties during the remaining legs.
Our daughter returns to her artwork. She’s done a brilliant job with her drawing and painting of the Sydney bridge:
The kids and my wife stick around for bingo – no winners, though there are some bonus points awarded for making adorable animal noises.
On to a hybrid of A to Z and musical trivia today – we correctly identify the dance that originated in France and Russia (ballet) and the 6th largest country in the world (Australia), but fail to identify the artist who wrote Sweet Home Alabama (Lynyrd Skynyrd) or the Italian word for black (nero). A perfect score was needed to take first place, so we end up in third – but still on the podium.
We continue to make arrangements for our various upcoming trips and excursions, and run into a wrinkle with our forthcoming mid-journey voyage to Angkor Wat – or more specifically, our sidetrip to Vietnam afterward. Silversea needs our passports to go back to the ship after we land in Ho Chi Minh City, while we need our passports to check into hotels in Vietnam.
The Moon’s Reception team has offered to call hotels to make the arrangements, but we’re checking with our tour operator first to see if he can figure these details out on his end. Fingers crossed we can get everything sorted in time. We depart for Angkor Wat in just five days.
It’s formal night, and we have dinner at the Silver Note tonight. We’ve dialed in our choices from last time, and I order the duck confit for my appetizer:
Followed by a trio of lamb, beef and lobster for my main:
And capped with the Pavlova for dessert:
I think I prefer the opera cake, but it’s all delicious.
We bask in the music for a time:
And then we head to bed. One last sea day before we land in Singapore, and our first cruise segment comes to an end. Two more segments to go!