No rest for the wicked. Even on our sea day, we’re up at 7:45 am so that we can have a leisurely breakfast at La Terrazza. We have time for a full non-buffet meal at the Restaurant, but the kids are convinced that La Terrazza has the better waffles – so La Terrazza it is.
Next is an early morning lecture on Seals, Sea Wolves and Selkies – but on the way I stop by to see if there’s still room at the Engineer’s Lunch at La Dame. There is! But will it be worth it’s $110 surcharge?
Off to the lecture:
We were amazed by the pictures of the leopard seals, which look like something from the dinosaur age. We further learned that they have a distressing habit of playing with penguins before they eat them. Also – elephant seals can dive up to 2,000 metres deep and stay under for up to 2 hours.
Back to our staterooms so that the kids could get a bit more homework done, and I could do a bit of writing – we kept our eyes peeled for iceberg A23a but unfortunately the visibility was next to nil. The captain closed within roughly 0.2 nautical miles of the iceberg but the view looked like this:
Ah, well. Perhaps we’ll make another attempt on the Cape to Cape?
Time to head off to the Engineer’s Lunch. Not a lot of photos of this one, as we’re not permitted to take pictures of the engine room – though I did get one of the Chief Engineer’s office, and his toy collection:
Chief Engineer Antonello Loi is from Sardinia, Italy and has been working on engines since the age of 14. His department handles everything from the engines to light bulbs. There are 27 crew members on his team.
Of all the systems he manages, the grey water system is the most tempermental – made doubly challenging by the lack of redundancy. There are two engines and two generators, but only one grey water system. They also use a magnetic field system to repel fish and wildlife.
The water treatment system is effective enough that they could fully recycle the water on board, though they discharge it once it’s been used. New water is then created through the use of a reverse osmosis system. The Wind goes through roughly 130 cubic metres of water per day. The pool is filled with filtered sea water.
Most of the serious repairs need to be conducted when the are in Puerto Williams, which makes for long, challenging turnaround days. They do have a machine / fabrication shop on board, however – and they can shut down one engine or generator while they work on the other. The ship has to go into drydock regularly to perform maintenance, and last spent 18 days in drydock in Victoria back in October.
Each engine produces roughly 8,000 horsepower, and have a displacement of roughly 175 litres. (Many modern cars have a displacement of less than 3 litres, as a point of comparison.) They burn roughly 30 tonnes (30,000 litres) of fuel each day, but the impact of the stabilizers is minimal – roughly 0.2 tonnes of fuel per day.
While at lunch, my wife had texted me to say that the kids would unfortunately not be able to undertake the polar plunge this sailing due to a change in Silversea policy – you must now be at least 16 to complete the plunge.
I then asked Antonello whether it might be possible for the kids to jump the pool before it had been heated as sort of a miniature ‘penguin plunge.’ He obviously couldn’t make any promises, but he said he’d look into it.
Fingers are crossed, as it’s something both kids really want to do – though we do understand that there are typically good reasons behind these policies. (Generally involving some kind of accident or another.)
Off to the lunch itself at La Dame, which was spectacular. Here’s the crinkled menu, which was deliverd in a lovely presentation with a ribbon and bow before I ruined it:
For an amouse bouche we had caviar on egg with smoked salmon:
Followed by a quinoa salad:
Then lobster bisque:
Soup is inbound – but they let you admire the lobster first
Duck breast and tart d’endives:
And a chocolate bombe for dessert:
Everything came with wine pairings too – I don’t remember all of them, just that it was a lot to take in at lunch time. I perhaps had one or two mouthfuls of each wine and I was absolutely ready for a nap by the time the meal wrapped up.
I’d say it was worth the $110, but it’s probably a once-every-couple-of-years type experience. A great way to pass a sea day if you’re at loose ends, though – the lunch and pre-lunch cocktails took around four hours.
Meanwhile, my wife and kids very much enjoyed the Indian buffet:
It’s then time to head to the theatre to catch the tail end of the lecture on “Why are penguins so adorable?” Needless to say, this one was a hit with the kids.
A bit more time for homework and writing, and then off to trivia. Our son continued his streak with Greek gods – recounting correctly that there were 12 major ones. Our daughter was able to solve the second half of a riddle – two words that both start and end with he, one with eight letters and the other with nine. (The answers are heartache and headache.)
Off for some recaps with the expedition team. We have another sea day tomorrow so there wasn’t much in terms of future plans, other than to reiterate that the sea state is similar to what we’ve experienced already with swells around the 2.5 to 3 metre mark.
Some interesting briefings on various sea birds. The team spotted the white morph of the southern giant petrel while at St. Andrew’s Bay, which is apparently very rare:
They also did a briefing on prions, and apparently the ubiquitous camouflage colour for naval vessels (Navy grey) is actually based on a prion:
Back to the rooms to shower and change, and then off to the Venetian society cocktail party:
There’s some foie gras in there, and some cream cheese and pistachios – very descriptive, aren’t I?
Kids really enjoyed being feted, and celebrating with the Venetian society members. One couple is getting free laundry, for which we are truly envious. The top couple has 596 days if memory serves.
Chloe, Igor, and Florandy then performed an excellent rendition of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, then we’re off for dinner:
My wife and I both had the mushroom soup, which tasted much better than it looks in this photo:
My wife had the lasagna:
She enjoyed it, but the one from La Terrazza was a definite step up.
And I had the herb-crusted rack of lamb, which was excellent – exceptionally tender:
For dessert I had the chocolate mille-feuille:
Then back to the room where our Chronicles awaited:
We’re all very excited about the clocks going backward tonight, and the much-needed sleep-in day that will result.
Now clear of South Georgia (sad face), we at least are able to open our curtains and watch the ocean whip past. While we shall miss the wildlife, we also missed this time at night – watching the faint shadow of the waves outside our window before heading to bed to be rocked to sleep by the Wind.