Today’s Chronicle can be found here.
What’s better than a gloriously relaxed sea day? Three gloriously relaxed sea days. And we’re smack in the middle of them.
We started with a leisurely breakfast followed by our usual reading / writing / homework. Feels good for adults and kids alike to be (slowly) catching up.
Off to “Rings of Life & Depths: A Journey Into Atolls and Blue Holes” presented by Nikita:
We learned that the blue holes range from 40 to 400 metres in depth. There’s very little light at the depths, so plants often use chemo-synthesis instead of photo-synthesis – making oxygen from hydrogen sulphide. Scientists will often use blue holes to study this kind of marine life as an alternative to studying hydro thermal vents that can be up to 5 km deep.
Nikita also discussed ways in which to protect coral reefs. She noted conservation efforts like those done by Coral Gardeners but also highlighted the importance of leveraging local and indigenous knowledge. Beyond the environmental aspects, there are also deeply practical reasons for practicing conservation – deep-sea spongers have a vital role in medicine, and many have been discovered to have anti-tumour and antibacterial properties.
Off to lunch – where I completely forgot to take a picture of the menu. But I did get a picture of my delicious chicken skewers:
Perhaps one of the tastiest dishes I’ve had aboard a Silversea ship yet.
We debated whether we would take part in water volleyball, but eventually decided to just go for another swim instead. The kids once more enjoyed the sloshy waves and the hot tubs, the second of which is now (mostly) functional. It seems to have been having issues throughout the voyage, and roughly half of its jets still aren’t working.
After, I went to go try out the sauna and the steam room. Handy that this is located close to the central staircase on deck 7, as opposed to deck 8 forward on the Wind.
The sauna
The steam room
There are two sets of steam rooms and saunas, one designated for men and one for women – none unisex. You could fit two people in each, perhaps three if they were very friendly with one another.
I’d wondered if it was going to be busy on a sea day, but it was completely deserted. Relaxing and highly recommended!
And to close off an earlier thread – the Canadians who arrived without their baggage did indeed get it later. Apparently it was flown into the dimunitive airport in Rangiroa and sent to the ship from there. Great to hear that Silversea was able to make that happen.
Back to the room for a spell, where we finally got the chance to play a spot of Dungeons & Dragons – with our daughter as Dungeon Master this time around! It was great playing again, and we’re looking forward to resuming The Curse of Strahd once we’ve finished our current game.
We’d gotten back our copy of the VAT form from our pearly purchase, and took a few moments to send a picture of the form back to Pearl Romance. We received confirmation from the shop almost immediately – one more item off the list.
The ocean has taken on a remarkable hue as we’ve gone further south – almost cobalt in colour:
Off to trivia – my son correctly identified Charles I as the Cromwell’s rival in the English civil war, while I correctly named Harper Lee as the author of To Kill a Mockingbird. We learned that the first subway in New York was established in Lower Manhattan. Our score of 13 / 15 was sufficient to earn second place.
Dinner in our suite tonight – with 24 hours notice, one can order an Indian meal on special request.
It included chicken tikka masala, lamb rogan josh, naan, papadams, rice, and so on and so forth. Truly spectacular!
We had to vacate the room for turn down service, so off for a spot of dessert:
Then back to the room and off to bed – moving forward another hour tonight, and then that should be the last of the time zone changes until after Pitcairn.