Andes & Cape Horn Grand Adventure: 3-15 Another Day at Sea

Beware, the ides of March

It wasn't a good day. It wasn't a bad day. It was a fairly quiet day. Unfortunately Tony is still a bit sick. A touch of Traveller's diarrhea, so we think. Perhaps food poisoning? Perhaps Norovirus? No to the last perhaps. He has no fever. If he isn't better tomorrow, we'll head down to medical.

The great activity today was crossing the equator. And of course, as tradition is, there was a line-crossing ceremony. Although we actually crossed the equator at 2am this morning, the ceremony was held @ 11 am. If you are unfamiliar with this ceremony, here's a brief history from Wikipedia:

"The line-crossing ceremony is an initiation rite the commemorates a person's first crossing of the Equator. The tradition may have originated with ceremonies when passing headlands, and become a "folly" sanctioned as a boost to morale,^[2] or have been created as a test for seasoned sailors to ensure their new shipmates were capable of handling long rough times at sea. Equator-crossing ceremonies, typically featuring King Neptune, are common in the navy and are also sometimes carried out for passengers' entertainment on civilian ocean liners and cruise ships. They are also performed in the merchant navy and aboard sail training ships.

Throughout history, line-crossing ceremonies have sometimes become dangerous hazing rituals. Most modern navies have instituted regulations that prohibit physical attacks on sailors undergoing the line-crossing ceremony."

I remember my father telling me the story of his "line-crossing" ceremony while in the navy. While not all good memories, he was proud of being a shellback and carried his shellback card in his wallet until the day he passed away.

Depiction of modern day Naval Line-crossing Ceremony

So today was our turn to cross the line. Neither of us were "true" participants in the ceremony, Tony actually stayed in bed. It would be quite difficult to have all pollywogs (those who have not crossed the equator by ship) on this 3000 passenger ship physically participate in the ceremony. So 15 passengers are selected to participate while the rest of us watch. We are given the opportunity to "kiss the fish" and jump into the pool fully clothed afterwards. I passed. Photos of the ceremony are posted below.

Well, that was about it for the day. Tomorrow we are scheduled to dock in Puntarenas, Costa Rica. We've already been diverted to another port because of the size of this ship. And the Captian Nick Nash has already announced there is a chance we may not dock because of sea swells.

Here's hoping Tony's feeling better and we're able to walk on land for a bit.