Live from the Wind(s) of Antarctica. Dec. 19, 2023.

[Geezer Of The Seas]

Toto, we're not in the Caribbean anymore................

Absolutely stunning. 'Nuff said. Enjoy!

[twangster]

Leaving late but we finally departed for West Point Island at 3:30pm.  

It's a lot of uphill walking.  For those that can't do the hike they offer limited vehicle service.

Most of the uphill is in the first 20 minutes.

Austral Thrush

Hiking in bog boots added a new twist to a hike like this.

Finally we made it to the nesting site.

[twangster]

More Black-browned Albatross.

More chicks at this nesting site.

[twangster]

There were many Albatross soaring above and buzzing the colony close to ground but not landing.  I suspect this was part of the ritual to find a mate, a bit of showing off.

Definitely some mating rituals on display.

Some birds of prey looking for a meal.

[twangster]

This poor guy had one leg.

More Rockhopper penguins.

[twangster]

The hike back was a little easier.

Felton's flower.

Our guide pointed out the wind blown trees.  The Falkins are known for their winds.  These trees didn't grow this way, they were pushed this way.

[twangster]

The Tea House.

Unfortunately the group before us took forever to load the zodiacs on the way here and we lost a lot of time.  We had 10 minutes at the nesting site and by the time we reached the Tea House they were closing it.

Time to head back to the ship.

[twangster]

More 360 camera fun on the zodiac ride.

[twangster]

Nothing like coming back to hot chocolate and other beverages to warm you up.

[twangster]

Hike summary:

The elevation profile says it all.  This hike had a larger elevation gain compared to the morning session.

[twangster]

Daily briefing for Port Stanley tomorrow.  

Expecting wind.

Looking past Port Stanley we have two sea days to the South Georgia Islands.  

The first sea day won't be too bad with waves estimated to be 2.7m.

On the second sea day the wave estimate is higher at 4.5m.  

Meanwhile the winds have died and it's a beautiful evening.

[twangster]

Summer solstice.  Longest day of the year.

From my balcony it looked like a sunset was happening. 

Time of day - 21:15

I spotted the moon and thought that might warrant changing lenses.

[twangster]

The moon of the summer solstice.

With a guest appearance from Jupiter - the small dot on the right.

[twangster]

Day Four - Port Stanley

Position report:

 

[twangster]

Day 4 Chronicle:

22 DEC - Port Stanley.pdf

[twangster]

Day 4 continued...

I'm starting this after dinner on day 4.  We left Port Stanley several hours ago and we have two sea days ahead so I may finish the day 4 topic tomorrow, during day 5 at sea.

Land was approaching closer so I knew we were near.

In the distance you could see signs of civilization.

Too big to enter the harbor, the Silver Wind will anchor outside the harbor and we'll zodiac to town.

Not a bad view while waiting in my suite for my group to be called.

Soon enough the call over the PA came and I was off.

[twangster]

The zodiac ride today was 1.65 miles or 2.6km.  At the briefing yesterday they warned us it could be splashy. 

Despite being in a harbor the Falklands get a lot of wind.  Wind makes surface waves and a zodiac with surface waves makes splashes.  This was the wettest zodiac ride so far. It was fine at first but once we entered the harbor and made that turn the waves were hitting the zodiac at the perfect angle to spend the next 10 minutes in a car wash.  

I set my watch to record an "outdoor walk".   You can see where we anchored and the ride we took to town.

 

[twangster]

The town dock we landed at:

We were offered several excursions for Port Stanley going back several weeks.  Upon boarding they had added a couple we could switch to.  I stuck with the Exploring the Highlights of Stanley tour.  This was included in the cruise fare.

This was a bus tour which I have a love-hate relationship with.  Despite that I appreciate the value of seeing and learning a lot about an area.  

Our resident tour guide grew up in Stanley and was well acquainted with the town and its history.  The bus was comfortable and featured vinyl seats.  Apparently they have hosted wet cruise ship guests before.  

Typical housing.

Our first stop took us through to the end of town, past the airport and to Whalebone Cove which features the wreck of the Lady Elizabeth.

The Lady Elizabeth.

In the day of wooden ships the Lady Elizabeth was a state of the art iron ship.  Unfortunately she became damaged as she transited Cape Horn.  Upon seeking shelter and repair in Stanley she struck a submerged rock.  Being a remote small community Stanley didn't have the facilities to deal with an iron ship back in the day so there was little they could do for her.  While waiting out a solution she broke free of her mooring and ended up in Whalebone Cove.

Our tour bus.

 

Our next stop was a sign post that was established by some military that were stationed here in the wake of the 1982 conflict.  It has since become a popular attraction.

[twangster]

The next stop was a peat bog.  Peat was the primary source of heating and cooking fuel back in the day.  

Despite looking like dried mud, there is actually a lot of energy in these "bricks".  Our guide recalled memories of her childhood managing the peat to heat the house like some folks manage woodpiles to do the same. 

Absent of trees, peat it is, or was.  Most homes now use home heating oil and they have tanks for this purpose at each residence.

Stanley isn't a large town at around 3,500 people in the area.  The primary place to grocery shop:

My HOA won't let me park an RV on my lawn.  I could only imagine if I parked a tank.

[twangster]

The next stop was at the home of a resident who has become vocal against the whaling industry.  

They have several skeletons on display left over from whalers.

[twangster]

Next stop... Government House.  

Originally built when Stanley and the Falklands officially became British in the 1800s.  The newly appointed Governor needed a residence and so Government House was built.

WWI War Memorial

[twangster]

The final stop was at the Historic Dockyard Museum.

We were given the option to leave the tour at this point and visit the museum or stay on the bus to return to the town dock.  The museum is a ten minute walk to the dock so I decided to visit the museum.  Admission is included for cruise ship guests.

A propellor from the Protector.

 

[twangster]

I inquired if I could take pictures and they agreed so here are some pictures from inside the museum but I'm hardly capturing a fraction of the detail.

[twangster]

From the second floor:

A sample of the rocks from the area.

The Curiosity Corner was a great way to feel the fur and feathers of the animals we have or may see.

A gift store.  Stanley will be our last contact with civilization in the form of a town so this was our last chance for last minute shopping.  

 

[twangster]

The walk back to town was easy.  

When we boarded the bus we were given a postcard with a stamp already on it that we could mail home.  Here is the post office.

A Catholic Church.

The Anglican Church.

Our guide had pointed out this house due to the brick construction.  There is no brickyard in the Falkland Islands.  The bricks would have had to have been shipped in back in the day, no small task.

[twangster]

After some shopping at various gift stores in town I was ready to head back to the ship.

Back on the ship for a late lunch at The Grill.

Inbound returning guests:

The postcard we were given.

Stanley tourist information.

Museum guide:

The route of our bus tour and zodiac ride home.

[twangster]

Daily briefing and recap.

Tomorrow by noon we are expecting 3m seas.

The next day, 4.7m seas.

A history lesson of The Protector III HMS 251.  She was a British mine sweeping ship that played a part in the Normandy landings.  She later retired from military service and found herself in the Antarctic.  Recognize her?

We encountered her yesterday.

Another crew member read an adaptation of the poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.  It's all about the Albatross.

A wonderful dinner in The Restaurant.

Time change tonight.

[Babsy47]

Amazing photos.  Awesome blog.  Thank you for taking the time to bring us all along!

[twangster]

Day Five - Sea Day enroute to the South Georgia Islands

Position report:

Balcony observations:

Quite pleasant.

[twangster]

Breakfast in La Terrazza this morning.

The Silver Wind has been retrofitted with these all in one hand washing stations.  They go through four stages first dispensing soap. a brief pause to lather, a clean water rinse followed by dispensing a paper towel to dry your hands, all in one compact station.  

Meal with a view.

While La Terrazza advertises a buffet they also accept orders such as an omelette to your specifications.  

New expedition information posted.

Our next destination.

Enrichment lecture with Jess O. exploring the concept of survival bias using the Shackleton expedition and the Endurance as a case study. 

Very well done.

In one hours time at 11:15 we have a mandatory biosecurity briefing for our next stop.

[twangster]

Day 5 Chronicle:

23 DEC - At Sea.pdf

[twangster]

Biosecurity briefing.

First we watch a video narrated by Sir David Attenborough.  

The South Georgia Islands take biosecurity very seriously and we will have another session this afternoon where we present all of our outerwear for the crew to go over to ensure it is clean.

As far as the Avian Flu...

The South Georgia Islands have mostly closed to visitors on land due to the Avian Flu.  The goal is for us to have zodiac and kayak tours but without a landing.  Weather conditions, sea state and an advanced scouting will dictate how our day progresses once we get to Cooper Bay, our first stop.

[twangster]

Biosecurity inspection at 14:00.

We were called by our zodiac group number to the deck 5 lobby for an inspection of our outerwear,  

With that complete it's free time once again.

The ship has a slight roll side to side which made my afternoon workout rather spirited.  Great view though.

[twangster]

Another wonderful dinner in The Restaurant.

There are 230 guests on this sailing.

 

[twangster]

Our guitarist and vocalist Tomás.

He is pretty good.

Gingerbread houses and one of many Christmas trees on board.

As we sail into South Georgia waters overnight the ship must not have external lights to minimize impact to wildlife.  We have been instructed to keep our balcony lights off and curtains closed.  Around the ship blackout covers have been applied.

The Dolce Vita bar before the shades were lowered.

[AlmondFarmer]

5 hours ago, twangster said:

We were called by our zodiac group number to the deck 5 lobby for an inspection of our outerwear,  

So long as contaminant inspections are limited to outerwear, embarrassment should be minimal. 

[twangster]

Day 6 - enroute to the South Georgia Islands

Christmas Eve Day

Position report:

Balcony observations:

Another beautiful day at sea.

Slight roll to the ship as we plod our way through the sea.  The ship handles it quite well.  Quite a few birds out there skimming the waves looking for their breakfast.

[twangster]

Day 6 Chronicle:

24 DEC - At Sea.pdf

[twangster]

A word about the internet on board.

When I first boarded the Silver Wind I saw the included internet package performed much like the internet did on the Silver Origin.  That was just under 2Mbps down and just under 1Mbps up.  Since I am doing this live thread and planned to upload a lot of photos I splurged for the Premium Internet upgrade.  

That wasn't cheap for an 18 night cruise at $345 but it was essential if I wanted to upload as many pictures as I hoped to during this cruise.

The Premium Internet increased the performance to what has been fairly typical up to this point:

This is the same performance I observed on the Silver Origin with the premium internet upgrade making me wonder if it is a fleet standard.

I am hopeful this level of performance will continue for the remainder of the cruise as we head farther south in the days to come.  It's not clear to me if Starlink has an operational Southerly limit that we may venture past next week.  Time will tell.

On my travels with ships that belong to sister cruise lines such as Celebrity and Royal Caribbean International I've learned that they tend to install multiple Starlink systems on a particular ship and they load balance guest devices across them by associating each device to a particular Starlink antenna and modem.  This is evidenced by different devices having a different public IP address.  

A benefit of the premium internet package is the ability to connect four devices at the same time.  Having multiple devices connected has allowed me to observe at least two public IP addresses on different devices which leads me to believe there are at least two Starlink systems on the Silver Wind just as there were on the Silver Origin.

The Silver Wind has been upgraded with newer WiFi access points.  Professional grade WiFi is something I do for a living so it's a topic I'm somewhat familiar with.  The platform on the Silver Wind is very good and it has performed well.

When the onboard system reports medium usage I've continued to experience the same ~9Mbps down and ~4Mbps up performance.  With the ship rolling a little today the internet has remained stable.

I've also seen this level of performance on Royal Caribbean's largest Oasis class ships so it's not uncommon for the RCG family.

If this level of performance continues while in Antarctica I'll be thrilled with my $345 upgrade despite not being thrilled about the price.   

In summary I'm happy with the performance of the internet onboard and that they have upgraded the WiFi technology on the Silver Wind.  By placing access points in each suite as noted earlier in this thread they have done everything they can to ensure the best possible experience.  

[twangster]

On this sea day I thought I show some photos from around the ship.

Let's start with the fitness center.  Small but functional.

There is also an aerobics room where they hold some spa related classes.