Day 18: Crossing the Equator
The phone is dead. Le sigh.
Waiting until I get home to replace it isn’t a good idea, because Agent Orange down south of the border still doesn’t understand how tariffs work and the phone could end up being 25% more expensive by the time I get home. Don’t get me started on that.
Anyway, the big news of the day is that we crossed the equator this morning. We crossed the Arctic Circle on our first Viking cruise, which involved having a pale blue dollop of some whipped-cream-like substance applied to your nose, a shot of aquavit (Viking’s official drink - they even have their own in-house brand), and getting a ladle of ice water poured over your head.
The trans-equatorial ceremony was a bit different.
First, a bunch of the crew hauled in a big rope for some reason, then were put “on trial”, whereby King Neptune found them all guilty of some silly thing or another, and they had to take a plunge in the pool (clothed) to appease the King. Cute, I guess, but they all got their trials one at a time and it took forever to get them all in and out.
For the travellers, crossing the equator means that we’re going from ‘polywogs’ to ‘shellbacks’ and the ritual begins with bowing to, touching, or kissing a big tuna that represents King Neptune.
Then crossing the pool and taking a shot of aquavit.
The chef had a large cake on hand to mark the occasion. Lots of macarons as well.
Even the captain took part in the ceremony, even though I’m sure he’s crossed the equator many times before.
You may be thinking right now, “ok, good for him… but I’m surprised you missed the shot of him actually jumping into the pool.”
To which I’d say, “what? Of course I got that shot.”
Trivia again today - joined an all-Canadian team this time. We didn’t do too badly: 12/15 and no team got a perfect 15 this time. One question that we answered correctly, and only one other team got right, was “Complete the set: Star Child, Cat, Demon, [blank]”
I’ll let you ponder that one for a bit.
Baggo went on again at 3pm, but I had to miss it because I was down in medical hooked up to an EKG. My resting heart rate had been clocking in at around 115 bpm for more than three hours and not even a nap would bring it down. Now, my father died of heart failure at age 39, so when it comes to anything strange happening with my heart, I don’t play around. The EKG showed that yes, my heart rate was high, but also that the rhythm was good and not erratic. So not having a heart attack, yay. Turns out that I was very dehydrated. This is actually not that surprising, since I normally drink about 2-3 litres of water per day at home, but I haven’t been doing that here. Also, way more booze than normal. Both are easy enough to fix. Good to know I’m not going to die. Not yet, anyway.
Back at Chef’s Table again for dinner with new friends Tom and Jim from California. Fun evening with the two of them. The menu is “Xiang” which you saw described two posts ago, so I won’t go into everything, but I’ll mention the mango dessert this time. It’s a sort of mousse with mango and lime puree inside on a bed of crushed pistachios. Very tasty!
The opera singer from a couple days ago was back for her second show tonight. It was fine, but didn’t have the emotional impact of the last one. Another sea day tomorrow. Not sure what I’ll get up to…