San Martin, Peru to Easter Island, Chile

We are all hoping this will be our final sea day and the weather will permit us to anchor and safely tender ashore at Easter Island tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, as the day progresses the weather is deteriorating, with initial wind being about 15 knots, increasing to 25 knots by late afternoon. We also experienced a fair bit of rain and by late afternoon the visibility closed in. However, today’s schedule was a pleasant departure from the usual serving of carpet bowls, water volleyball, etc. Rather than Sunday Brunch, this morning we had a delicious Saturday Brunch and once suitably nourished I spent an enjoyable 3 hours in the Princess Theatre.

Temperature: High 21C/70F, Low 17C/63F

Wind/Weather: Initial wind ESE’ly at 15 kts, increasing to 25 kts late afternoon. Overcast with frequent rain. Visibility reduced in rain. Moderate 5’ to 7’ seas

Sunrise/Sunset: 08:13/19:41

Clox: Z-5 (no change)

Navigation

Throughout the day Sea Princess maintained WSW’ly courses at a speed in excess of 20 kts, later reducing to 18.5 kts, across the Pacific Ocean. At a speed of 20.8 kts, at times, I assume we have all 4 engines back on line.

Activities

Although 2,000 miles west of Chile and actually in time zone Z-7, Easter Island maintains the same time as parent Chile. Therefore, while heading almost due west, Sea Princess will remain at Z-5 until after departure Easter Island. This imbalance in clocks, shifts sunrise and sunset times 2 hours later, than if the cloxs were adjusted correctly for the time zone. Hence the late sunrise today and an even later sunrise tomorrow, which will be almost 09:00. I am amazed, as my sleeping patterns have already adjusted to what the cloxs should be. This morning I didn’t wake up until after 06:00.

With a port day tomorrow, the Chef and Maitre D have scheduled a Saturday Brunch at 10:30, so no regular breakfast in the dining room. Therefore, I decided to delay my morning walk until 07:00, completing only 18 laps or 6 miles, before the telly started calling me to Saturday AM football. Returning to the cabin by 09:00 for the 3 pm kick-offs, I was devastated to find the ship has lost satellite service, therefore no football this morning. With no footie, I completed yesterday’s blog post and checked the emails. Fortunately the internet satellite is still available.

About 10:30 we headed down to the dining room for brunch, with Judi ordering from the regular menu and me the buffet. Rather than the huge seafood buffet, this morning they were serving a large perfectly medium rare Prime Rib, fresh cooked pastas, cheeses, breads and desserts. I enjoyed a couple of slabs of prime rib, a couple of potatoes and a small portion of pasta. Perfect breakfast. Judi had a couple of poached eggs, followed by a substantial portion of her favourite – cream swans.

The schedule today was also different from the usual, with 3 items in the Princess Theatre of interest. First up was the science lecture from David Pilbrough titled, “Enigmas of the Solar System”. David discussed the formation of the universe, from the currently accepted scientific perspective, which dates back over 14 Billion years to the big bang. He provided explanations of how stars are born and then eventually explode, once they have utilised their energy sources. I thoroughly enjoyable lecture. Next on the agenda was the photographers, and while I normally don’t pay any attention to them, today they provided the first showing of their Machu Picchu film. One of the video producers went on the tour, capturing footage from all stages of the 3-day extravaganza. She subsequently spent a further 3-days editing it down to about 30 mins with background music and a narration of the actual visit to Machu Picchu. The young lady did an exceptional job, both capturing the video and producing the final product. A most enjoyable 30 minutes.

Judi came down to join me for the final act, “Confessions of a Folk Singer”, by Trevor Knight. Trevor put on an excellent show a couple of nights ago and this afternoon he talked briefly about his journey in the music world, singing songs from John Denver, Peter Paul & Mary, Kingston Trio, Don McLean, Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger. He performed for almost an hour, including the full 7 minute version of American Pie. A most enjoyable show.

Next up was Capt Kent’s daily navigational announcement and yet again it didn’t disappoint, with Sea Princess tootling along towards the splash and rumble at Easter Island. Based on the forecast he is still quietly confident that we will make the port call tomorrow, but only when we are brought up to the anchor and tenders are in the water will we know for sure. We are all keeping our fingers crossed. For dinner tonight I had the striploin with pepper corn sauce. It was cooked to perfection, perfectly medium rare, tender and tasty. All in all, after brunch and dinner, one of the galley’s better days.

The post dinner show is a juggler/magician, which generally tend to be a bust, so we all took a rain check and headed to our cabins for an early night. 

As another day closes, we bid you farewell, till tomorrow and hope for fair skies and following seas.