Another great thing about small ship sailing…..dinner was us, a couple from Austrailia and a couplle from San Francisco. Captian Steve is a young man from Scotland, Married for 24 years and has 2 boys, 13 and 8. He met his future wife while working on a container ship a few years before they married. He now works 3 months on and 3 months off as Captain of the Seabourn Pursuit, so he does get to spend half the year with his family in Scotland. When asked if his family ever sails with him he answered no because the Scotish government fines the parents if their children miss school. The area we are sailing into will be a first for him, so we will get to discover this part of the world together. We had a wonderful visit and just like that, it was 9:30, the time just flew by.
In bigger news, the ship has a broken stabelizer and will have to stop for repair. We will now spend 3 nights (instead of 1) in Papeete, Tahiti. Damn the luck, stuck in such a beautiful place. We were there a few years ago and Kim was there several years ago. Seabourn has added a couple of complementary tours for us and refunded everyone on board $1,000 for the inconvience. Tough life, but we are up to the challenge. Unlike all of our other stops. we will be at a dock the whole time, so we can come and go as we please.
Hey, we are on pacific standard time today. So, we have gained back the 4 hours we lost flying to Chile and will now start lagging behind our west coast friends. Slowly, hour by hour. It takes about 2 days sailing due west to gain an hour.
Well, it’s time to go to a lecture on Coral. Bye for now……….
Well, it’s absolutely in the middle of nowhere, it is lush with greenery, inhabited by wild horses and the weather is perfect. The Island is rather small though, about the size of Washington D.C. If you are over 60 there is one milestone Easter Island claims that you probably have forgotten about. In the 80’s when the space shuttle project was new, the United States built a runway here so that if the weather was bad in Florida and California, they could land the shuttle here. We saw that runway yesterday and it is still in use today as several flights come and go daily. As a matter of fact, a passenger who fell and broke her leg on Robinson Crusoe Island was evacuated from the ship yesterday morning and flown to Santiago for surgery.
Easter Island is also known for its large stone statues, called Moai. They are hundreds of years old, and many have fallen or were purposely knocked down for whatever reason, some were even victims of Tsunami’s. In more recent years, some have been raised back up by the residents of the Island.
After visiting many of the Moai sights, we roamed through the town of Hanga Roa. We stopped at a little restaurant and had the most amazing ceviche I have ever had.
It was fresh caught local Tuna, I might have to go back into town this afternoon for more. Okay, I hear a few of you saying, “What? Is that Steve getting off the ship?”. Yes, I have gone ashore both times we have had the chance. The great news is that my back issues have all but resolved themselves and I can walk and stand much better and longer than I could a year ago. I still have balance issues and age-related issues, but I am once again enjoying exploring our destinations.
Speaking of going into town, the harbor is extremely small and has a dangerously narrow entrance. The Harbormaster would not allow our Zodiacs and tenders to enter or leave the harbor without a local pilot on board and no nighttime landings at all. They basically pick a wave and surf in on it. BREAKING NEWS: Kim went to town early this morning and just returned. She said the ride back was horrible, it scared her it was so rough and bumpy, wow. So sorry she had to experience that. Hopefully Pitcairn Islands will be better.
More fun facts about the ship. There are 227 Guests, 216 Crew and 23 Expedition Leaders on board for this leg of the cruise. That will change in Tahiti, when most of the guests end their 20-day voyage.
After today, we are at sea for 2 more days and then we explore the Pitcairn Islands.
So, should I start by apologizing for not posting these last few days? Well, there is a lot of water between Robinson Crusoe Island and Rapa Nui (Easter Island to you American folks). I absolutely cannot say that nothing has happened, but what is worthy of sharing? I don’t know. Every day there have been lectures by the most seasoned experts in the world, I can tell you about sea creatures, rocks, volcanoes, tectonic plates, earthquakes, tsunamis, birds, moai and fish poop. It’s exhausting, but incredibly fascinating.
Fascinating thing, the sunrise is at 8:30 and the sunset is at 8:30. If you don’t have something in the picture, you really can’t tell the difference between them.
I told you about a whale sighting that both Kim and I saw, and I didn’t get a picture. I think it was a very rare sighting of a beak whale. I told our Marine biologist what I saw, and a couple of days later, she told me another guest saw it also and with the two of our descriptions, she is pretty sure that we really saw a beaked whale. Sadly, she has studied the beaked whale for several years and has never seen one in real life, Ugg.
Expedition cruises are a very unique experience. This is our third expedition cruise. The guests are a bit different in that they are quite knowledgeable and thirsty for more knowledge. So, how did I, a kid that barely got a high school diploma, end up here? All I can say is that if high school started at 50, I would have been a super star, I wasn’t ready for all that stuff when I was 14, but it all balances out.
One week down, seven weeks to go. We are really enjoying our adventure so far. On Wednesday and Thursday, we visit Rapa Nui or Easter Island. It is famous for its carved statues or Moai.
I will leave you with a shot of the Zodiac’s that get us from ship to shore.
Robinson Cruse Island was a great place. Kim went hiking in the morning and then after lunch we both went back to check out the small village. In the afternoon we attended a Pirate Party where we were fed Lobster, Octopus, Crab empanada, and fried fish. We washed it down with Pisco Sours, a Chilian drink that is extremely good, limey and refreshing.
So, Robinson Crusoe was really Alexander Selkirk. He had the captain of the ship he was on drop him off there expecting to spend a few days and get picked by the ship again. Well, the ship wrecked and Alexander spent over 4 years there until another ship happened along. I guess hitch hiking wasn’t the best plan in those days. Early on, other ships had brought goats to these 3 Islands so that sailors passing through would always have fresh meat. We actually saw some goats up in the hills from our ship as we were, so this idea for fresh meat is still working.
Endemic to these Islands are the bright red Humming bird and the San Fernandez fir seal. We saw lots of both. The locals catch Lobster and ship them to the mainland (Chile). On Selkirk Island we saw men in fishing boats catching “bait” for the Lobster traps. The bait looked good enough to eat.
As we left Kim and I saw a Whale, only briefly, so no pictures. After talking to the Marine Expedition Leader, I am convinced that it was a very rare Beak Whale.
Speaking of hitchhikers, we found this Petrol hanging out on deck 9
This is a good map of the beginning part of our trip. I would say over half of the passengers will leave us in Papeete.
Well, I’ll leave you with these two pictures taken a few seconds apart, showing how much the ship was rolling. Notice that the rail is in the mountains in the first picture and in the Ocean on the second one.
Our first full day at sea was very relaxing and pleasurable. We attended a few lectures and learned about our next destination, The Juan Fernandez Archipelago, don’t let that fool you, it’s really Robinson Crusoe’s Island. It is 375 miles off the mainland of Chile, but still a part of Chile. More on that tomorrow after we have experienced it.
The picture above really says it all for me. When I can sail into the sunset every night with the love of my life, it really fits the website’s name, sailwest.net. Spoiler alert, Season 3 starts in January 2026 and leaves from Los Angeles, circling the “Ring of Fire” ending about 5 months later in Vancouver BC. Not totally west, but I can bend it, tune in and watch.
A little more about this ship.
As I said before it is new, it is designed for exploration, it is a class 5 icebreaker ship. Last week, it was in Antarctica. The ship is really small, the maximum passenger load is 264, but we are under that, the crew is 239. The other Seabourn ships are a bit larger, but not by much. We started to recognize crew members and passengers from prior sailings even before we boarded the ship. It is fun to see familiar faces as we embarked on the ship.
Well, it’s hard to come up with any pool chronicles when the pool deck looks like this. However, it seems that you don’t have to be at the pool to hear some funny stuff. We were sitting in an area called the Discovery Lounge watching a video about the ships most recent trip to Antarctica when a lady asks another passenger where the atrium is, she answers that she hasn’t found it yet. She asks the bartender and he takes her 20’ to the atrium. Shortly after that, a man holding a map of the ship, asks the same bartender “where is the atrium?”, again, the bartender takes him the 20’ to the atrium. Okay, I guess if you have never been on a cruise ship, you might not know what or where the atrium is. So, I Googled it and here’s their definition… “a central hall in a modern building, typically rising through several stories and having a glazed roof”. Well, I guess it is not specific to Cruise ships then, is it?
Then, at the daily briefing, a time we are given an explanation of the next days activities, after learning much about the 3 Islands that make up the Juan Fernandez Archipelago, a man asks if the Islands are mostly inhabited by Polynesians. The speaker almost lost it this time, but he patiently responded, “as I said earlier, this is part of Chile and most of the residents are Chilean”. From the side of the room, another expedition leader said ” yea like 110%”.
One would think that if you signed up for a trip like this you would do a little research before embarkation day, even I do and I’m usually one of the worst at preparation.
Yes, it goes on, our first stop is what they refer to as a dry landing, meaning the Zodiac boats let us off at a dock, they showed us a picture. They also described a “wet” landing and showed a picture. A guy asks, “what if our shoes get wet”? Again, how does one answer that without making the guest feel like a complete idiot?
Dinner was fantastic tonight, it was a signature meal designed by the captain, so there weren’t many choices, you ate what the Captain put on the menu. In season one on the Island of Samoa, I was handed a coconut with a straw sticking out of it. I hadn’t tried fresh coconut milk since my first trip to Hawaii in the late 70’s, so I tried it again. I still didn’t like it, okay I will pass next time. Well. Tonight’s appetizer was smoked salmon and caviar. The caviar was placed right on top of the salmon, so, thinking back to the coconut milk, I decided I would try it again. Unlike the times in the past when I didn’t like it, tonight was different, I liked it. So, next time I will try it again.
This map gives you some idea where we are and where you are, for a better perspective and additional information about time zones. That is to say if you are in Texas, you are 2 hours behind us.
Stay tuned for tales from Robinson Crusoe Island…..
