Day 10: At the Equator

Brian Robertson, my longtime friend and our Voyager Club host for the World Cruise, joined me for breakfast in the Lido Café this morning. After the 10:00 lecture, I enjoyed a few minutes poolside taking in the fresh air before attending the Mid-Day Mid-Earth party to celebrate crossing the Equator.

King Neptune and his Mermaid Queen, along with their entourage of pirates and mermaids joined the festivities.
During a brief ceremony, King Neptune initiated those who had not previous crossed the Equator by ship into the Ancient Order of the Solemn Mysteries of the Deep, and pronounced all of us Shellbacks. I’ve previous crossed the Equator 7 or 8 times but never with such spectacle and revelry.

Lunch was a Mexican buffet. The tortilla soup was very good, but not as good as Mi Cocina’s in Fort Worth. After lunch and a massage, I had a little time off before the 5:00 musical show called Standing Room Only. Now that was a real show!

Dinner with the Chief Electrical Officer stretched on until we had to move our conversation to the lounge area outside the dining room. The conversation went from swapping stories about life and work at sea, to Harley Davidsons, to Machu picchu, to a funny story he told about driving from Houston to Albuquerque via Dallas/Ft. Worth. The long stretches of Texas highways, and the sheer length of the journey took this Dutchman by surprise. He said he could have crossed several countries in Europe in the time it took him to drive across Texas. That was no surprise to those of us from Texas and we all had a good laugh.

Tomorrow: Fortaleza, Brazil.