CROSSING THE EQUATOR 12th February 2013

Today we crossed the Equator and this is traditionally a big event in sea-faring terms. To sail across the Equator permission has to be granted by King Neptune who just happened to grace us with his presence on the ship. Once permission has been granted those ‘sailors are then allowed passage over the line.

Evidently ‘First Timers’, those of us on the high seas who have never crossed the Equator before are known as POLYWOGS. Thus this morning Julie and I were POLYWOGS. At 2.00 pm today, the time of the crossing we officially became SHELLBACKS.

Of course, no ‘great event’ such as this is allowed to occur without ceremony and Cunard sure know how to mark the event.

We missed the documentation calling for volunteers to participate in the event so we were simply ‘spectators’. Probably as well since it can be a somewhat messy event, albeit great fun.

King Neptune is the officiator and reads out the charges.

The selected members are ‘charged’ with various ‘crimes’ and the onlookers declare them ‘Guilty’ or ‘Not Guilty’. These ‘charges’ include such aspects as ‘Crimes against fashion’; ‘Pressing all buttons in the lifts’ and removing ‘Do not disturb signs from cabin doors’!

Naturally all charges are upheld by the crowd and they are then ‘punished’ by gunging. The guilty ones then have to ‘Kiss the Fish’ as part of their punishment!

Naturally, the crew didn’t escape the carnage and most of the senior crew members ended up being dunked in the pool along with the passengers!

It was all great fun and a really enjoyable experience.

SO FOLKS, THERE YOU HAVE IT. JULIE AND I ARE NO LONGER POLYWOGS BUT FULL, BONAFIDE SHELLBACKS!!!!

Tomorrow we cross the International Date Line. This is interesting because we ‘lose’ Friday 13^th February. We go to bed on the 12^th and wake up on the 14^th. That’s a bit of a bitch for Rose, one of our ‘dining’ group as her birthday is on the 13^th. so she loses her birthday!

One advantage of course is that we are able to have a day fasting and thus eat twice as much of all the great food here on the following day. Yeah!!!