20240416 (17th here) Sapphire Princess South Pacific Cruise Day 13 - sea day equator ceremony - new shellbakcs

Sapphire Princess South Pacific Cruise Day 13 - Sea Day - minting the new shellbacks with disgusting stuff

For the record, it's Wednesday, April 17 here, and Tuesday, April 16th at home in Florida. Trying to keep things straight for everyone.

We're fully into the southern hemisphere and continuing south. Since our equator crossing was late yesterday afternoon, there was no time for the traditional equator crossing ceremony. Princess corrected that today.

The basic gist of it is that nobody is allowed to cross the equator without the blessing of the ruler of the seas, King Neptune. If the lowly pollywogs that have never crossed the equator on a ship have been accused of crimes, they must answer for them by being pelted with various, disgusting food items and then, ultimately, kissing a fish. That's what happened today.

Eggs, spaghetti and sauce, meringue, and flour

Various colored slimes plus a large fish in the covered tub

Seven representative passengers were chosen to answer for their offenses. They were brought out to hold court with the King.

Our fellow trivia player, Cheryl, was among the chosen criminals

Looking over their pending punishment

Other trivia partners, Trisha and David, getting ready to cheer the accused on

Almost time!

King Neptune has arrived

The King's...uh...let's go with "statuesque" Queen

The scribe and the rest of the King's court

Check out those abs

It was time to read the charges. The accused were called up one at a time or in pairs to answer for their offenses like ordering two dinners in one night, abusing the drink package, and other, heinous offenses.

The formal reading of the charges

Each of the accused tried to escape but was restrained by the King's court officers

Receiving the punishment

The next accused

More punishment

It kept getting worse

Bringing out the fish

The crew guards were getting into it

The final criminals got the worst of it

Bringing the fish for the rest of the pollywogs

The King and Queen came over to the other side of the ship

They oversaw the rest of the pollywogs coming to kiss the fish to become shellbacks

Everyone seemed to have a great time. It is a fun tradition that we've been part of and witnessed multiple times. This was our fifth equator crossing by ship with two more scheduled in the next year.

Arlona, checking out the nearly glassy seas - an unusual sight here in the Pacific

When we got back to the room, I looked up from the balcony and saw this full Sun Dog circling the Sun

On the way to lunch, we saw this. We've seen several of these. We believe that this is a room where the residents have been quarantined, either by choice or decree. We've seen food delivered to the table, suggesting that the guests can't leave their room. We're seeing more of them pop up all over the ship and that can't be good.

At today's cruise-long progressive trivia, we had a good day scoring a perfect 10. We're quite a few points out of the running, but with more days like this, we can get back in it. Here are our goofs from the rest of the day.

• What is the world record for putting on single socks in 30 seconds (28, 47, 112)?
• We guessed 47, but it was 28
• What was the fast food chain with the first drive-thru?
• We guessed Jack in the Box - it was In and Out Burger
• Which animal sleeps the most?
• We guessed sloth - it was koala at 22 hours each day
• What bird is known as the laughing bird?
• We guessed myna - it was kookaburra
• What is the fear of clowns?
• Coulrophobia
• What is known as the king of fruit?
• We guessed pineapple as the top looks like a crown - it is the durian
• What is the best-selling album in the U.S.?
• We guessed Thriller - it was Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) by the Eagles
• What is onomatophobia the fear of (words, sounds, tomatoes)?
• We guessed sounds but it is names (or words)
• What goes up and down but never moves?
• We guessed the temperature, but it was stairs or a stairway

Tonight was the second of five formal nights for this journey. It really is a mix of folks who do or don't participate. We did see several folks in tuxes and formal dresses so that was nice.

We went to the International Dining Room as usual for tonight's dinner.

Arlona had the garlic shrimp and I had the beef tenderloin.  Dinner was good as was dessert - caramel pecan turtle cheesecake.

They even surprised us with a plate of extra dessert treats

As we returned to the Explorers Bar, we met Doug, the manager of the restaurants and bars, looking dapper in his dress whites.

Any clothing fit issues are this guy's fault

They had a couple of fun games at the Explorers Bar tonight. The first was a top-ten game. The host gave a topic like the most recent summer Olympic countries, most popular sports by fan base, the lightest elements on the periodic table, largest cities by population, and so on. We had sixty seconds to list our guesses at the top ten and then scored a point for every answer that we got right. It was a lot harder than it seemed and it was a lot of fun.

Next, they played a higher or lower game where contestants went on stage and were given a series of five questions like: 72% of doctors said that divorce can create actual symptoms that can be treated. The contestant had to guess whether the actual percentage was higher or lower. It was also tougher than it seemed and was entertaining.

Finally, we returned to the room, calling it another good day.

Tomorrow is our last sea day before arriving in Samoa on Friday.