At Sea

March 27^th, 2024

OK, so we crossed the equator yesterday, but the ship officially had the crossing the line ceremony today.

People who have not crossed the equator by sea are called Pollywogs, and those who have crossed the line are called Shellbacks. This tradition goes back to the 18^th century, and in the past could be quite a brutal affair. My first experience was in the 1950s, and there is a record of it in glorious black and white 8mm film of me as a baby looking like I am screaming in my mother’s arms as I am being dunked in the pool. So clearly my first experience was not a positive one. My memory of the ceremony from the 60s is of people being slathered in a pink substance which looked and smelled like Calamine lotion. Thank goodness I didn’t have to do it again.

Well things haven’t changed that much. I doubt that they still dunk babies in the pool, and instead of the pink stuff they have spaghetti in glorious shades of food coloring, all ready to be slathered over those who have volunteered to be a part of the ceremony.

There was quite the build up to the ceremony as we all stood in the blazing sun trying to get a glimpse of what was going on.

Well we weren’t really at zero latitude.

The chairs stood empty waiting for the victims. The brightly colored spaghetti goo stood waiting for the victims.

And then they arrived.

Shortly after they were joined by King Neptune and his lovely wife,

who looked remarkably like Rob Raincock.

The ceremony began, and those standing above the action could actually see what was going on.

From my vantage point it wasn’t that easy.

But it didn’t really matter. It was agreed that the Pollywogs were guilty of various nefarious acts such as sneaking food out of the buffet, drinking too much champagne, not attending enrichment lectures, and other evil acts. Oh boy, I must say I have been guilty of some of them myself………

Then they got to kiss the fish

All in all a good time was had by all.

We left the mess at that pool and retreated to the adults only aft pool. Suddenly the bright sunshine was replaced by dark clouds, but it was still great to watch the wake and lie reading on the loungers.

The weather got worse, and when I looked out of our window, instead of seeing a sun ready to sink below the horizon, there were dark rain clouds. No green flash tonight. No southern cross.

It was a formal night. We got all dressed up because I love doing that, and Brian looks so good in his tuxedo, but we were definitely in the minority. I understand that some people don’t like dressing up, or don’t have the clothes, but the number of people in shorts and T shirts was a bit disappointing. Still, we had probably the best meal that we have had on board. Crawfish vol au vent with a whisky cream sauce, perfectly cooked chateaubriand, and vanilla souffle. My kind of meal. However, I was beginning to think that the sommelier was a figment of my imagination. We were back to the waiters pouring the wine. They are lovely, hard working people, but I do wish someone would train them a bit. And what happened to those wine glasses?

Still, we had a lovely evening, and there on our bed were our certificates of crossing the equator. I was pleased that they had the correct date and not the ceremony date. We are well into the northern hemisphere now. And it is way too cloudy to even contemplate looking to see if the southern cross will make an appearance tonight.