Day 28: We Are South of the Equator

Thursday, 2 February 2017 (Part II)
At Sea — South Pacific Ocean

Stats @ Ship’s Time 2:30p (MIT) … UTC 12:30a (3 February)
Temp: 79.9F (26.6C)
Position: 2.40.00S / 144.45.96W

What you’ve done becomes the judge of what you’re going to do — especially
in other people’s minds.  When you are traveling, you are what you are right there and
then.  People don’t have your past to hold against you.  No yesterdays on the road.
~ William Least Heat-Moon ~

Last night we set our clocks 30 minutes forward.  Yes, for the first time on our westbound voyage, we lost a bit of time.  Or more accurately, we gave back a half-hour of the five hours we have gained since leaving Miami.  This time change was made to put us in the same time zone as the Marquesas Islands, our next port of call.  However, it may turn out that the change was for naught.

In his noon announcement, Captain B advised us that due to the rough conditions at sea, our arrival in Nuku Hiva tomorrow has been delayed to around 4:00p.  We will stay in port until 10:00p or thereabouts to make up for it.  What good that is going to do us on a winter day (or rather summer now that we are in the southern hemisphere) is TBD.  After all, the sun sets around 6:30p.  Oh wait, we can be bait for the Marquesas mosquitoes ;-)  Yes, I’m being facetious.

The way Captain B explained it, even though he’s been putting pedal to the metal to travel at top speed, headwinds have limited our speed to 17 knots.  I guess we should be grateful we got an extra day at sea with the Kauai cancellation, otherwise we’d have to pass Nuku Hiva entirely.  Of course, that could still happen.  Captain B said he’d update us tomorrow as to the latest plans, indicating he was hoping to arrive earlier, but it could easily go the other way.  Sigh!

That aside, it’s been a gorgeous day at sea.  Pretty much a duplicate of yesterday with blue skies and sunshine, and texture-clouds.  Yes, there’s a bit of motion of the ocean, but nothing worrisome.  And of course we continue to have the strong headwinds.  The latter means that there’s just the lightest breeze on our aft veranda … just enough to make it comfortable enough to sit outside since we are getting some afternoon sun on the heading Insignia is currently following.  Thanks to the divider between our cabin and 6093, one chaise lounge is in the shade … and that’s where I am writing this entry at the moment.

Perhaps today’s line crossing ceremony should have been held earlier in the voyage to appease King Neptune.  Maybe he would have then granted us a smoother crossing ;-)  Call me a party pooper, but activities such as today’s ceremony are not my cup of tea.  In all the crossings we’ve done before, I stayed away from the event.  But I briefly put in an appearance today to take a few photos for the blog.

King Neptune’s Court arrives for the ceremony.

The crossing ceremony is actually a time-honored tradition of seafarers worldwide — military and civilian.  The origins seem to have been lost to time, but it is said the ritual goes back at least 400 years … maybe even to the time of the Vikings.  The premise is to induct the slimy polliwogs — those who have never crossed the Equator — into the Society of the Shellbacks — the hardy seafarers who have crossed the imaginary line that splits our world into two hemispheres — north and south.  There’s usually quite a bit of slimy stuff involved in the ceremony.  But today’s activities were limited to the kissing of the fish, and the dumping of a bucket of ice cubes and water over each polliwog who wished to participate in the ceremony.  Polliwog crew members may have been thrown in the pool, but by then I was on my way to meet Mui at the Waves Grill for lunch.

Chef Jörg throws himself wholeheartedly into the role of King Neptune.

Must kiss the fish or the polliwog cannot become a shellback.

And on that note, I’ll wrap up this post and enjoy my afternoon at sea.  I started working on the needlepoint eye glass case I picked up from Erica yesterday.  It’s good to know I have not forgotten my needlework skills in the years since I stopped doing counted cross stitch as a pastime.

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