The Arctic Voyage Begins

Sunday, 3 July (PART II)

Following our visit to Polaria (post here), it was time to make our way to the ship. We were delighted to see that while we were inside, the overcast had been replaced with blue skies and sunshine. And the temperature had warmed up to a very comfortable 50F (10C). It didn’t take us long to return to City Living to pick up our luggage. Soon, the taxi ordered by the front desk was whisking us to the pier at Nansenplass, where Silversea Expeditions’ Silver Explorer was awaiting us. (By the way, the cab fare, for a distance easily walkable sans-luggage, was 150 NOK [~$28] ... about the same as what we paid from the airport to our hotel.)

The red arrow points to the location of our suite aboard Silver Explorer.
(photo taken from Tromsøbrua on 2 July.)

Boarding Silver Explorer was a cinch. At the bottom of the gangway, we were greeted by crew members, who later turned out to be waitresses (it seems that the 120 crew members turn their hand to a variety of duties). They immediately relieved us of our checked bags and carry-ons, and escorted us aboard. At the top of the gangway, we were greeted with hot wash cloths to refresh ourselves and handed champagne to sip as we were led to the Panorama Lounge where two members of the expedition team were waiting to collect our passports. A quick stop to get our ID photos taken and we were done. That was the entire check-in process. There was neither a line of passengers, nor a laborious process. Very nice. At our convenience, we’ll stop by the reception desk and provide a credit card for any purchases we make from the gift shop. With a surprise shipboard credit of $125/person, however, it’s unlikely that we’ll have any charges to worry about. Still, we do have our eyes on a couple of sweaters in the boutique, so we’ll see.

Deck plan and ship’s specifications compiled from information on the silversea website.

Once checked in, our butler, Joel (from the Philippines), introduced himself and escorted us to Vista Suite #418. Now don’t get any ideas that our accommodations are super plush or anything. What’s called a suite is a standard stateroom (IMHO) with a casually elegant décor. Sure, there is a seating area with two chairs and a coffee table, but it is not separate from the rest of the cabin, which is dominated by twin beds. Nonetheless, the accommodations are very nice.

After dropping off our bags, we headed to The Restaurant for a buffet lunch. A selection of hot entrées, salads, and desserts provided a very tasty meal, and served to boost our energy for the chores ahead — unpacking and putting away our belongings. We found a surprising number of nooks and crannies to accommodate everything in our bags. My one complaint, if you can call it that, is that deeper shelves and drawers would work better on a ship that spends a great deal of time in cold weather destinations where bulky clothing is the norm.

Speaking of clothes, the Silversea gift parkas were awaiting us in our suite. I had ordered online what I thought were the right sizes based on our experience with Quark in Antarctica. It turns out that Silversea’s fleece-lined parkas run small. Mine was OK, even with an additional layer underneath; but Mui’s parka turned out to be a tight fit when worn over an additional fleece layer. No problem; Joel quickly replaced it with one size up, so he’s all set as well.

A local tug helps Silver Explorer maneuver away from the dock.

By the time we were settled into the cabin, it was time for the ship to cast off the lines. We joined the rest of the 122 passengers (15 nationalities represented, we were told) on the aft deck for a champagne sailaway. We had spectacular weather, and black-legged kittiwakes, to see us off through the narrow channel towards the Barents Sea, an arm of the Arctic Ocean. Leaving most of the passengers to nibble on appetizers being circulated by the waitstaff on Deck 6 aft, we found a couple of benches on the next deck up and enjoyed the sailaway from Tromsø sipping our beverages of choice. What a great start to the voyage!

Sipping champagne on a beautiful, blue-sky sailaway from Tromsø.

And later, we switch to beer.

At 5:00p, we made our way to The Theater for the mandatory muster drill. Expedition Leader Robin West (from South Africa) took a roll call and gave a brief presentation on the safety features of the ship. One of his staff then demonstrated the proper wearing of the bright orange life vests. Next, it was our turn to don the life saving devices, which we hope never to have to put to test. There was no boarding of the lifeboats on this occasion as we did on Professor Molchanov in the Antarctic — understandable as it would have been a more cumbersome process with 122 passengers vs the 48 we had on that voyage.

A black-legged Kittiwake spies on us from above.

Next came the zodiac briefing and information on the proper layers to wear for our small-boat cruises and landings ashore. Most of this information was familiar to us from our Antarctic voyage, but it was nice to get a refresher anyway. A nice bit of news is that once ashore, there will be bins in which we can deposit the zodiac life vests; that will make it easier to manage the photographic equipment we’ll be carrying when we’re ashore :-).

I have a feeling These benches on Deck 7 Aft will be seeing a lot of me during the voyage.

Following the muster drill, we returned our life vests to the cabin and headed out to explore the outside decks. We now know how to find our way to the bow so that we can capture forward-facing photos when we reach Svalbard. We also stopped by the reception desk on Deck 3 to confirm our Zodiac group — #3. With 122 passengers and 8 zodiacs, we have to take turns. The groups will rotate for each landing, so by the third one we’ll be the first group to go. I’m anxious to see how this works out.

Then we were off to Deck 6 aft to enjoy a bit more of the sailaway. I have to say that I was amazed that none of the other passengers were on deck; perhaps they were getting settled into their staterooms. No complaints from us; the peaceful solitude as the ship continued to travel through the calm channel was quite welcome.

Just an hour ago this place was a bevy of activity.

Playing at being the king of Silver Explorer!

I'm sure other passengers will make use of the hot tubs when they're filled, but this is the extent of any hot-tubbing Mui will be doing on this voyage!

I love how the clouds look like they’re pushing the mountain out of the way!

At 6:45p, we made our way back to the Theater where Robin introduced us to some of the department heads. We would have skipped this session as we do on other cruises, but the introductions were to include the 13-member expedition staff who will be lecturing aboard as well as accompanying us ashore.

The multi-national team has members from Austria, Canada, Colombia, Easter Island, Germany, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, South Africa, and the US. Their specialties range from biology (particularly the mega-fauna of the Arctic) … to botany … to geology … to history … to oceanography … to ornithology … to photography. Many of the members do double-duty as zodiac drivers. A few of them serve as gun-toting bear guards as well — after all, we are heading into polar bear country. As Robin put it, “There is less paperwork involved in shooting one of you than shooting a polar bear.” Thus we’ve all been cautioned to be on our best behavior so as not to put the bears in a situation where they might attack because they feel threatened. That’s assuming we even see any bears.

Collage created from biopics on the Silversea website.
(missing is Karolina Karas, bear guard/naturalist.)

By the time the introductions were completed, dinner time was at hand. So far, people have been very casual in their attire — which is as it should be when one is on an expedition voyage. Nonetheless, we changed out of jeans into dress slacks and cleaned up a bit before venturing to The Restaurant.

Dinner is open seating between 7:30-9:00p, with guests welcome to arrive at their leisure. Andrea, the Austrian Restaurant Manager (amazingly, she already knows our names), seated us at a six-top with Chris, a Brit who’s been living in Tromsø for 6 years; her partner, Bob, who splits his time between the UK, South Africa, and Australia; and a couple from New Zealand. Good conversation, free-flowing wine (beer for me, thank you very much), and unhurried service by Oana (from Romania) saw us sitting at the dinner table until 10:30p.

The three course dinner + dessert was very good. Small portions made it easy to enjoy each course without feeling stuffed at the end of the meal. I started out with a salmon/shrimp/cod appetizer on a puff pastry shell, had a cup of celery soup garnished with green apples next, and finished off with grilled Atlantic cod. Mui had the same entrée, but enjoyed the smoked salmon appetizer and mixed greens salad instead. My dessert was a yummy vanilla cherry ice cream; Mui’s white chocolate mousse was a bust unfortunately. (Nope, despite encouragement from our server, he did not order a replacement.)

Farewell Tromsø!

And thus the first day of our voyage has come to an end. We’re back in our stateroom ... Joel has turned down the bed and drawn the blackout shades (yay, we have fake nighttime!). Sea conditions were calm in the channel, and continue to be so now that we’re out into the Barents Sea. The sway of the ship has increased, but is still barely noticeable. During the briefing earlier, Robin said that they had a good crossing yesterday and they expect more of the same for tonight into tomorrow. After that, it’s anyone’s guess what will happen; weather can change in seconds up here. Robin has promised advance warning and we have our meds and patches if necessary.

We started this voyage at 69°40’49” N … how far north will we make it before the ice stops us? We’ll have our answer in a few day’s time.