twangster

Zodiac groups have been shuffled so my group is now early in the morning. That means an early bedtime tonight.

There will be no landings as The South Georgia Islands have closed to landings due to the Avian Flu. The new goal is to still see wildlife maintaining IAATO guidelines for a safe distance from wildlife as one would on land from the zodiacs.

Got a little ahead of myself. Briefing for tomorrow at 16:00 today. The current plan is for a stop in Cooper Bay in the morning followed by an afternoon stop at Royal Bay.

Christmas Eve menu in The Restaurant

A man walks into a bar… oh wait, Iceberg! Christmas tunes with Tomás.

Our Starlink gateway city has been Santiago, Chile up to this point. This means from the internet’s perspective we appear to be in Santiago. If you require access to resources that are geo-restricted you may want to think about a VPN service.

Indeed there have been icebergs passing on both sides. You can see one in the distance to starboard. It seemed to change shape in the time it took to get closer. This one to port was much larger and further away.

Since that video upload went okay here is a zodiac ride from New Island back to the Silver Wind. I sped up the video to make it shorter but that makes it look a lot more bumpy than it was. I normally like to add music and such but YT has gotten so hard to work with music I've just uploaded it with natural sound.

If anyone is wondering what 4m seas look like it's really not that bad. Here is 2 minute video using my 360 camera from the balcony. This video was captured a few minutes ago so about as live as you can get. December 24, 2023 - 1:45pm South Georgia Island time.

Captain's noon update: Currently 4°C with seas up to 4m. Seas are expected to increase to 5m overnight. Planned arrival at Cooper Bay 7am tomorrow morning.

Information posted for our consumption. Holiday greetings from the crew: The card and conference room.

Another beautiful sea day. Breakfast in La Terrazza. Panorama Lounge on deck 8 looking aft. Slight roll to the ship today, up to 5° according to a level app on my phone.

Around the ship a common theme for the artwork is photos from various early Antarctic expeditions. Admiral Byrd: Captain Scott.

Some of the holiday decorations around the ship: The deck crew were busy making a Christmas tree from one of the lines. A bit of a Clark Griswold moment with a tree too big for the space - they had to remove a ceiling tile to make it fit 🤣.

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.

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.

Day 6 Chronicle: 24 DEC - At Sea.pdf

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.

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.

Another wonderful dinner in The Restaurant. There are 230 guests on this sailing.

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.

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.

Day 5 Chronicle: 23 DEC - At Sea.pdf

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.

Day Five - Sea Day enroute to the South Georgia Islands Position report: Balcony observations: Quite pleasant.