Day 80 - At Sea (Crossing the Equator)

Friday was a fun day on the Zuiderdam. We got to cross the equator  (second time this cruise) and we got to cross the Prime Meridian (0 degrees E), neither  of which is very remarkable but doing them at the same time is rare.  Just before we crossed,   they had a King Neptune Ceremony to initiate the pollywogs (crew members who were crossing equator for the first time. Normally they would  become shellbacks but because we also crossed the Prime Meridian at the same time, they became Emerald Shellbacks (USA) or Royal Diamond Shellbacks (British Commonwealth). 

On the Norovirus front, the captain announced that things are improving and that the restrictions are starting to be lifted

First signs of color in the sunrise

Sun is up and making an appewarance

Getting Lido pool area ready for King Neptune Ceremony

One of the 2 retractable roof section would not open this morning so we had only half open. Crew member trying to troubleshhot the problem

Kathy had a ssecond row seat by the pool. 

The fish that they will bow to. Normal procedure is to kiss the fish but for health reason they will be bowing

King Neptune and his queen arriving

The the Captain

An hist senior officers (they will be the judges0

rEady to g.

Here come the pollywogs

The "Nurses" gething their tables ready

The first group of pollywogs being ecort before the court

Bowing to the fish

The Nurses doing their thing

The jury votes thumgs up or thumbs down

The Captain and the other judges

The fish

Another vote by the judges.

Thumbs down meant into the pool

Views from the upper deck

At the end, all the new Shellbacks went into the pool

Then  we passed over 0.0N (sometimes known as "Null Islands". The GPS ordinates from my camera  ,  .05 in of the center

Where we were in the South Atlantic

I had a German beer (brought on for our visits to the 2 Namibian ports).

No sunset to be seen tonight