Day 71 - Cruising the Amazon River - Leaving the river

 Saturday was our last day on the Amazon River. Mid morning we passed the city of Macapa which sits directly  on thre equator. We dropped off the 2 Amazon River pilots sailing with us and proceeded north-east to the mouth of the river. Before getting to the north Atlantic we passed over a large sandbar which we had to do at high tide and we had  15-20 feet of water under us. We sailed at a reduced speed for a couple of hours.    The highlight of the day was the King Neptune Ceremony -  a traditional maritime ritual performed on ships when crossing he equator, where sailors who  haven't crossed before (Pollywogs) undergo a series of trials and are inducted a Shellbackd by King Neptune.  Kathy and I became Shellbacks on our 2019 World Cruise and Emerald Shellbacks on our 2023 World Cruise when we crossed the equator on the Prime Meridian (@  ( 0°N 0°E / 0°N 0°E / 0; 0)  off the coast of West Africa.

This is about the best this sunrise got.

Many small boats on the river today

An Egret in the water

A bunch of egreets

Close-up of the previous photo

The River pilots leaving

Macapa

The tan monument in the middle is a right on the equator. At the 2 annual equinoxs, the sun alligns with the circle at the top

Sailing past Macapa

The site of the King Neptune CXeremony

Setting up chairs

The fish to be kissed is a large pirarucu  or paiche which can grow to 10 feet and over 400 pounds.  It lives along the bottom of the Amazon River

placing the fish in position

Getting the slime ready

The jury was the captain and senior officers

Ready to go.

King Neptune and his queen

The judge residing over the processing

In come the Pollywogs

Into a pen

The Kings starts the proceedings

Bringing in the first departments pollywogs

Kissing the fish

Getting slimmed

Awaiting the jurk's verdict. Choices are into the pool or sitting in the  sun with the slim all over you. Preferred is into the pool

The audience all around the pool area

Finally they all go into the pool to wash off the slim.

Z
A Large-billed Tern flying by

The pool will be drained and cleaned tomorrow