All change?

 

Silversea’s overlords at Royal Caribbean have decided to rebrand them. At the moment, this appears to be limited to the external appearance of the ships. The bottom section has been painted in what Diva assumed was undercoat, looks like battleship grey and is apparently meant to be silver. The logo on the funnel has changed so that it looks washed out – as if someone put white undercoat across it. There has been no official mention of this onboard – TSH and Diva asked the HR manager about it when they were chatting with her. They think it is a huge mistake.

The HR manager also described the logistics of the last 16 months. Getting as many crew as possible home - sometimes using the ships as ferries, preparing to help with evacuations from the Australian wild fires, assembling quarantined and vaccinated crew, dry runs to prepare the restaurant staff for the return of guests. The latter involved filling each restaurant in turn with non-restaurant crew such as cleaners and deck hands, who all enjoyed the new experience of being waited on.

The passengers are still trying to help out. During a lighting issue in the theatre when the lecturer could not read his notes, a passenger offered him her phone torch. It was politely refused. The lecturer – Peter Crimes – was a PhD student in the Geology department at Liverpool University when Diva, in her first job, worked on the Computer Helpdesk.

Weather misty but not too cold and the sea is very flat.

Wildlife sightings: 1 rabbit, 1 egret, 2 cormorants.

 

Aquavit and Academia

Dinner included a trio of smoked salmons and Diva cautiously drank the Aquavit served with it, surprised that she liked it as normally she doesn’t ‘do’ spirits. Very strong, so little or no wine that night. At the cookery demonstration the next day, the chef claimed that all Aquavit crosses the equator twice to improve the flavour. The demo covered a Thai curry which may get made at back at home and a Norwegian venison dish which would require modification as it contained cream and was undercooked for Diva and TSH’s taste. TSH and Diva stayed up late, well 23:00, to watch Kashena Sampson’s show. They have seen her before and enjoy her mixture of folk and country singing. She is about to release her first album, including some of her own songs.

The lecturer, Dr Peter Crimes, is excellent, both for knowledge and presentation. He is from Chester and was studying at Liverpool University when Diva worked there in the computer lab.

On a day at sea, Tai Chi was harder than usual because of the wind and the ship’s movement. A woman who looked Asian was also doing Tai Chi, but hers was from a different tradition. Later, both put in a long hard shift proof-reading Diva’s Leonard Cohen dissertation.

A couple of things Silver Cloud got wrong: The Captain said the forecast was for ‘moderate to rough’ seas, but fortunately this did not happen.  They don’t know how to make an omelette ‘well done’.

Two doctors

There were two doctors. The one who looks after any sick passengers or crew – TSH and Diva thought he was even more brutalised than most  (Diva has a medical phobia). So absolutely no plans to be ill. The other was an orthopaedic surgeon who lived in Brisbane but originally studied at Liverpool University, like Diva did.

The Denmark Strait between Iceland and Greenland was too choppy for Tai Chi but nothing like the early part of the voyage. Early on Saturday, exactly one day late, the coast of Greenland came into view. Snow-capped mountains. New territory, just as the early explorers saw. But their vessel was nothing like the Silver Whisper.  The Arctic Chard (TSH) and fragrant lamb curry (Diva) were especially good last night.