Skip to main content

Crossing the Equator


We crossed the equator at approximately 6:30am this morning and late this afternoon there was a 'Commemoration of Crossing the Equator' event. 

According to tradition, any ship crossing the equator must pay their respects to King Neptune to gain his acceptance. As part of the ceremony, King Neptune comes aboard the ship to exercise his authority over his domain. Nobody knows how or when this tradition started but it dates back over 400 years in western seafaring.

The ceremony also marks the rite of passage from slimy Pollywog (a person who hasn’t crossed the equator) to a Shellback (a person who has crossed the equator).

Here are a few pictures of the ceremony. In this case Pollywogs had to kiss the fish!

King Neptune and his wife


Kissing of the fish!

Lots of people came out to watch the ceremony!   
 One more sea day and then we'll be in Pago Pago, American Samoa.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jamestown, St. Helena / Thu Mar 21

Today we're anchored off Jamestown, St. Helena which is a small (10 miles x 6 miles), volcanic island that's part of the British Overseas Territory which includes Ascension (more about that in the next post) and Tristan da Cunha islands.  St. Helena is located approximately 1,100 miles directly west of Luanda, Angola, Africa and about 2,000 miles east of Brazil - basically in the middle of nowhere. Population is 4,500. The island is famous because it's the place of Napoleon Bonaparte's exile and death.  When our ship's Captain came on the PA system the other day, he described these islands and what they had to offer. He ended his comments by hoping that we enjoyed our time on these two rocks in the middle of the ocean! LOL!  We truly enjoyed our time today! We went on a ship tour that took us around most of this scenic island. Again, the pictures cannot convey the landscape's beauty. Jamestown is wedged between two very high peaks. We drove around m...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Week At Sea / Thu Feb 21 - Wed Feb 27

We have 7 full sea days crossing the Indian Ocean until we reach our next destination which is Port Louis, Mauritius. When we docked in Freemantle our butler (Marcelo) left the ship. His contract ended and he flew home to Brazil for a well deserved vacation. We're so sad to see him go as we had grown quite fond of his cheerful greetings and lovely manner. Our new butler is Jean - also from Brazil.  When we began the cruise we weren't sure what to do with the butler service that came with our cabin but it turns out that they can be very helpful with just about everything!  Each day around 5pm our butler arrives with a variety of canapes to snack on before dinner. Jean really out did himself one day with this display (partially eaten before I took the photo) of crab claws, lobster meat, cheese and crackers!   It's hard to imagine but the days at sea fly by. We're keeping busy with lots of activities including some excellent enrichment lectures and bri...
Post a Comment
Read more

Perth / Wed Feb 20

Today we docked in Freemantle which is a port city about a 20 minute ride from Perth. Perth is the capitol and largest city in the Australian state of Western Australia. We boarded a ferry in Freemantle for a ride up the Swan River to Perth. Lots of yacht clubs and beautiful homes lined the river. The approach from the river was quite scenic.        In the photo below you can see the Tree Top Walk in Kings Park.     We drove through various neighborhoods in Perth then stopped to spend time in beautiful Kings Park which is one of the largest parks in the world - even larger than Central Park in NYC.        There were beautiful views of Perth from the park.         We then had a brief stop at Cottesloe Beach before driving through Freemantle and returning to the ship.         On our drive back to the ship we passed through some o...
1 comment
Read more