Each to their own but I am not taking or renting boots. You cant yell at me if you have a problem but I have never experienced an issue in the past.

The rental price is crazy at $90. The times we’ve been on the Explorer, and you have been many more times than we have, they have had lots of boots. I don’t understand why they make such a big deal about it, especially with the email reminder yesterday.

To make extra $$$

The person who can decipher what these changes mean is MARC!!!!

Please allow us to share some important information about the itinerary for voyage 7816.

Due to some restrictions on our local fuel suppliers we are making some changes to our scheduled voyage in the East Siberian sea.

Silver Explorer will now call on the small community of Pevek in Siberia, making it the first cruise ship in the history to visit this community. Together with our Expedition Staff we will take the opportunity to meet the local community and explore the surrounds.

As we will now have to refuel twice during this epic Siberian Sea Expedition our schedule will be changed as follow:

25-Jul-2018 Wed NOME, Alaska
27-Jul-2018 Fri Provideniya
28-Jul-2018 Sat Cape Dezhnev
28-Jul-2018 Sat Uelen Village
29-Jul-2018 Sun Kolyuchin Bay
29-Jul-2018 Sun Kolyuchin Island
30-Jul-2018 Mon day at sea
31-Jul-2018 Tue Pevek
01-Aug-2018 Wed Ayon Island
02-Aug-2018 Thu Krestovskiy Island, Medvezhyi Islands
02-Aug-2018 Thu Chetyrekhstolbovoy Island
03-Aug-2018 Fri At Sea
04-Aug-2018 Sat Krasnin Bay, Wrangell Island
04-Aug-2018 Sat Cape Blossom, Wrangel Island
05-Aug-2018 Sun Cape Florens, Wrangel Island
05-Aug-2018 Sun Ushakova Cape, Wrangel Island
06-Aug-2018 Mon Cape Waring, Wrangel Island
06-Aug-2018 Mon Gerald Island, Wrangell Island ( 71 23 27 N // 175 38 15 W )
07-Aug-2018 Tue day at sea
08-Aug-2018 Wed Pevek
09-Aug-2018 Thu At Sea
10-Aug-2018 Fri Vankaram ( 67 51 51 N // 175 41 33 W )
11-Aug-2018 Sat day at sea
12-Aug-2018 Sun Proliv Senyavina Hot Springs
12-Aug-2018 Sun Yttygran Island
13-Aug-2018 Mon Provideniya
13-Aug-2018 Mon NOME, Alaska

We are very happy that this schedule will allow us to also now include Chetyrekhstolbovoy Island, as well as Vankaram Village, where we hope to not only visit with the local community, but hopefully see some of the walrus that frequently haul out on the nearby beaches.
Another exciting addition to our schedule is Gerald Island, also part of the Wrangell Island Nature Reserve.

Please accept our sincere apology for any inconvenience this may cause you. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts and due to circumstances beyond our control, this operation was our only option. We wish you an enjoyable journey when you cruise through the many beautiful and exotic destinations your itinerary will take you to.

Wow! FOILED by ice again. :(. They have chopped off most of the Arctic Ocean cruising. We are losing Laptev Straight, De Long Islands, and any mention of Ice Edge Cruising. I also can't find any details (or location) on Chetyrekhstolbovoy Island. Oh well, understand ice issues but at least they can be upfront; i.e., they don't want to take an ice class ship through ice without ice breaker in reserve.

This site image won't copy properly and I don't know how to make a screenshot and post here so you can see forecasted ice conditions by going to this site:

http://www.arctic-lio.com/nsr_ice

Select Northeast Passage - East
Select ice conditions (may be preset)
Select forecast and go out to last forecast currently 27 July

You will be able to see that the East Siberian Sea is supposed to be iced in four days before we are supposed to arrive at Ayon Island (Ayon and Pevek are both ice free).

edited to add: Found all the Arctic stops; it is clear that they don't want to travel too far; we are going only a few hundred miles between refueling on 31 July and 8 August; we went a lot longer than that without refueling on Northwest Passage.

edited further to add: Here is the description for the two stops on 2 Aug in Medvezhyi Islands:



Here is the wikipedia information on Gerald Island, added to the five Wrangel Island stops:



Here are Silversea descriptions of the places that have been dropped from itinerary:



One place added to itinerary is Yttygran; here is Silversea description from previous itinerary:



Here "was" the map of our itinerary:



Everything to the west and north of Medvezhiy Islands has been deleted.

One other note, although notice from Silversea says they added Chetyrekhstolbovoy Island, it was already on the itinerary under Medvezhiy Islands (it is one of the six islands and the new itinerary has same length of time and names the two islands to be seen).

Here is the introduction to the wikipedia page on Pevek:



And a follow on paragraph regarding the Gulags:



Maybe we can take a tour of the gulags on our two days in Pevek; would be interesting to search the graveyards. On the other hand, here is the trip advisor page for things to do in Pevek:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attract...onomous_Region_Far_Eastern_District.html

Weather forecast for Ayon Island while we are there:

https://www.accuweather.com/en/ru/ayon/2497632/daily-weather-forecast/2497632?day=16

Pevek should be similar as they are on opposite sides of a bay. Temps about 15 degrees below normal but still pleasant.

NASA satellite image of current ice conditions are here:

https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.go...6490149,5119983.318005538&r=-90.0000

You can pick out Wrangel Island just northwest of Alaska. Ice beginning to break up around Wrangel but East Siberian Sea still pretty much covered.

Marc

Knew you’d figure out what was changing, Marc. Will investigate further.

So, back to tHe boots. I received the same notice about boots. Rent for $90. Ridiculous! We have boots here at the ranch. Been mucking about in them. But if needed, I will try to power wash and bring. We are on the cruise after yours, so. Will need to know if it is really necessary.

A couple of quotes from Silversea website. First is the "description" of our cruise:



The second is from the terms and conditions:



So, maybe the rumor that Silver Discover has replaced Silver Explorer on this trip is true.

See everyone soon!

Marc, the Discoverer has no strengthened hull - in Australia - are you just kidding like your little face suggests. Now if they replaced the Explorer with the SILVER CLOUD I would be VERY HAPPY.

Ngaire, I just like to start rumours.

I just posted those two quotes to show that they talk about wildlife but the contract says they can take us wherever they want and show us whatever they want. I sure hope they spend more than just the three days on Wrangel looking for wildlife.

Still researching our new two day stop in Pevek; here is the description from the Silversea email:


And here is the picture from Wikipedia:



Marc

That picture is soooo picturesque it is creating a huge amount of excitement in June and I for our visit. Not sure we can hold back our excitement. Hopefully they will also host a dinner so we can experience some of the fine dinning that the town must be famous for.

Such enthusiasm! First, we will have our gourmet (Musk Ox?) dinner in Nome before we board!

BTW, I just noticed this on Silversea site regarding our cruise:



Should we contact them next month and ask for our upgrade?

Marc you are on a roll!!!. For those booked and taking this seriously - we checked that special and since the prices have risen by thousands of dollars - not a good deal.

Ngaire, we are going to have so much fun on this cruise; did the order for ruffles potato chips get in? And Coke Zero?

Marc,

My inside info is that they have stocked a huge supply of Coke Zero by removing all the scotch from the bar.

Hmmm, this could be fun. Since Mike and Linda cancelled I figured that there would be plenty of scotch. If they are scotch-less; I may have to do some experimenting.

Marc,
Pevek looks a lot like several of the Russian towns we visited on the Nome to Otaru cruise on Silver Explorer. Where there wasn't much to see or do they would have us in the community center and the locals would put on some singing & dancing in traditional dress and we would sample local pastries. The Inuit communities are far more interesting.
Jim

The village of Vankarem looks much nicer:

I found it odd when they started advertising that special for our cruise awhile ago. Didn't we all HAVE to have our Russia visas by mid May?

Leslie, are you trying to add logic as a requirement for Silversea marketing?

Since boarding is 2-4, does that mean that there is no lunch available onboard? Can we board before 2? All three previous Silver Explorer cruises involved Silversea provided transportation/tour.

thanks,

Marc

I don't think they do lunch on boarding days - they usually have sandwiches and other items up in the bar. You won't go hungry.

Well to be sure I checked - answer YES there will be lunch onboard during embarkation. In the past they have been very strict with boarding times - you can try but you may end up sitting and waiting on the dock.

I've been doing a little itinerary research and came across this essay about Wrangel island - beautiful photos.

https://www.biographic.com/posts/sto/high-stakes-in-the-high-north

I tried to create a simple google map of where we are going to visualize what might have changed - the red are the eliminated stops, the green are the added. Chetyrekhstolbovoy Island (aka Stolbovoy Island) is west of some of the planned destinations (Dmitriy Lapov Strait, Lyakhovsky Island) so not sure why that part changed, but maybe the De Long Islands are too far north. I can't really interpret Marc's ice charts.

I'm guessing that Pevek is the new refueling spot, but I can't imagine what we will do for two days there. Hopefully explore nearby.

Leslie that is fantastic. Really puts it in perspective. I bet that the refueling stop in PEVEK. In remote areas like this I am sure there are not a lot options. I bet one day in PEVEK they will do a cultural show and if it is not worth going back a dock sea day wont be too bad.

:LOVED that article on Wrangel Island. I am just excited about going somewhere so remote. None of us really know what to expect on this trip and I find that pretty exciting - an adventure with really good friends. Pretty great situation.

Leslie, there are two Chetyrekhstolbovoy Islands; the one we are going to is in the Medvezhiy Islands so we are not going as far west or north as you have indicated. It does look like we will be able to go through the ice just east of Medvezhiy Islands (unless they decide to avoid the ice (and polar bears) on way to Wrangel Island.

Thanks Marc. I knew you’d know.

I’m sure it’s going to be special wherever we go. I can easily visualize the map from
the east to west perspective, but it’s not so easy for me when I look at the top down globe perspective.

Came across some more interesting articles about Wrangel Island:


NPR interview with Hampton Sides and Nat Geo article by him about Wrangel.

https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=180932256

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2013/05/wrangel-island/

Be sure to click through all the photos - taken by my new favorite wildlife/nature photographer - Sergey Gorshkov