7247 The Midships Lido Pool set up for the Neptune ceremony. The ‘operating tables’ are covered in black skirts. The new Shellbacks that are not dunked gather on the right among the bears. The colorful tubs hold the meringue like substance that the Pollywogs are smeared with. They are being paraded into the jail on the far side of the pool. You can just make out the rope that strings them together.
7642 Here’s a pollywog kissing the fish under the watchful eye of the pirate cohort. At the top left of the picture you can see the Officers who decide the fate of the Pollywogs. The girl kissing the fish is a singer in the ship’s case as is the blond girl second in line. The taller blond is one of the dancers and the girl in the white t-shirt, last in line is one of the ship’s librarians. I found out later that she wasn’t looking forward because she’s afraid of fish.
7367 After kissing the fish, the pollywogs visit the operating tables. These unlucky newly minted Shellbacks are headed to the Bear Pit to sit in the sun.
7386 The Shellbacks who were unlucky enough to receive the ‘stink’ vote are huddled around the bears. You can see the lucky ones who got the ‘sink’ vote in the pool on the left.
7389 King Neptune and his Queen.
Nov 28, 29, 30, Dec 1, 2, 3 – At Sea. Wow, six days at sea to prepare for the return to reality. Not bad. Once we get north of the Equator the seas may not be as smooth as they have been for most of the trip. We’ll be bucking the prevailing winds and currents, plus it’s almost winter up there and I know that some storms have been churning up the waters off the west coast.
11/29 Well, we crossed the Equator last night and since we’re still near it we’re in the “Doldrums”, a zone that was feared by sailors in the days when they actually sailed. Ships would be ‘becalmed’ for days and sometime weeks unable to make any progress on their voyage. The winds and seas here are usually very light and this is no exception. That’s good since today we are being visited by King Neptune and his queen. The King Neptune ritual has been honored at sea for a very long time. The earliest known written description is from 1823 but is believed to have derived from rituals on Spanish, Portuguese and Italian ships from earlier times. HAL ships observe this ritual once a voyage, no matter how many time you cross the Equator. On this cruise, we crossed four times and they held the ceremony on the last crossing heading back to the USA.
Crewmembers that have not previously crossed the Equator are known as ‘Pollywogs’. During the ceremony, the Pollywogs are initiated into the Solemn Mysteries of the Ancient Order of the Deep and become ‘Trusty Shellbacks’. On HAL ships, this is accomplished by a humorous ritual in which ‘pirates’ lead the pollywogs onto the deck in simulated bonds. They put them into a ‘jail’ to await judgment. They are brought in small groups by department before a panel of the ships officers. A judge, in white wig and black robe, reads out the charges against each group while King Neptune and his queen make humorous remarks about the group. Navigators are accused of running in circles, room stewards are accused of hiding in our closets so they can make the bed when we get up to use the bathroom at night, chefs are accused of putting extra calories into the food, etc.
After the charges are read, they are found guilty and the first step is kissing a large fish they’ve put on ice at the side of the pool. Next, they are taken to tables where ‘doctors’ and ‘nurses’ smear them with colored meringue like substances. They wind up looking like a mixed serving of sherbet. After they are well coated, the officer panel is asked if they should ‘sink or stink’. If the vote is ‘sink’, they get to jump into the pool, rinse off and soak in at the end of the pool. If the vote is ‘stink’, they have to walk down to where the bear sculptures are at the end of the pool and sit in the sun. The coating applied starts to harden and gets pretty ripe, hence the stink. Everyone has a good time, including the pollywogs. They ham it up in the jail by yelling and screaming while the pirates give them orders and throw cold water on them. Probably feels good as it’s always done near the Equator and it’s always hot. Most of them have more trouble kissing the fish than with being coated with meringue.
At the end of the ritual, the ‘stink’ shellbacks jump into the pool as well as most of the pirates. The rule is, ‘never wear a non-waterproof watch or carry your wallet if you’re involved in the ceremony in any capacity but the staff officers’.
12/2 Today we had another HAL tradition, the show buffet. Once a cruise they have a fancy buffet where all the chefs go out of their way to create not only delicious but also attractive food. They carve vegetables and ice, mold butter and chocolate, bake bread in ornate shapes and create small tableaus that reflect the places and things we’ve seen during the cruise. They open the area for pictures only for an hour and then everyone has to go out and get in line to go back in to eat. I usually go to take pictures but not to eat. I go up to the Lido for lunch. Today’s buffet was superior. The vegetable carvings were the best I’ve seen.
Dec 4 – Long Beach, CA, USA. This should be a very easy disembarkation. Our friends Shirley and Ken are coming to Long Beach to pick us up. We’ve selected the latest possible disembarkation, 10am, so they can avoid getting involved with rush hour traffic. The side benefit of that is that we can get up later and go to breakfast at a reasonable hour. It’s not as good as it could be because they are ending breakfast at 8am rather than the usual 10:30am. The ship is not boarding any new passengers and everyone is getting off. The ms Amsterdam is sailing up to San Francisco to go into dry dock for two weeks. After all, things have to be first rate for the World Cruise, but odds are some technicians and vendors will still be aboard trying to finish their jobs.
Shirley and Ken swooped us up at the cruise terminal that once housed the Spruce Goose until Evergreen moved it up to McMinnville, Oregon. It makes a good cruise terminal, easy to get into and easy to get out of with lots of space for displaying the offloaded luggage. Short ride home and it was as though we never left.
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