May 14, 2012 - at sea

May 14, 2012 - at sea

This morning we crossed the equator and this afternoon there will be a "Crossing the Equator" ceremony. They asked for volunteers for the ceremony and having been in the army I know never to volunteer. Supposedly King Neptune and his bride will be there for the ceremony.

This morning we are having a Piracy Drill. There has been pirate activity in the Bight of Benin in the Gulf of Guinea ( I guess that is where we are) so we will have the drill. We did this on the last cruise on the east side of Africa. When they announce Tango Papa you know that the call sign for the drill.

Both these activities will interfere with bridge, our lesson starts at 9:30 am and the drill is at 10 am and playing bridge starts at 2:30 pm and the equator ceremony is at 2pm.

This is our last day at sea, tomorrow we dock in Cotonou, Benin. The next day is Lome, Togo, and then Tema, Ghana.

We had about a half- hour of bridge lesson and then the pirate drill, which took up an half-hour. We played trivia and finished high but not good enough to win.

After lunch we waited until 1:30 pm and then went to the pool area to watch the "Crossing" ceremony. It was interesting, with King Neptune renewing his vows with his wife "Double DD". Then the pollywogs were covered with slime - whipped cream, pasta, chocolate syrup, eggs and anything else that was handy. There were seven volunteers who made the transition from pollywogs to shellbacks for all of us pollywogs. The Staff Captain and Cruise Director both ended up in the pool. The ceremony was really fun to watch, I don't think I would want to participate. We heard from other passengers that on other cruises random passengers along with crew and staff were thrown in the pool. Make sure your watch is waterproof...

After the ceremony Evelyn took a little nap and I laid out by the pool. Don and Myrna played afternoon bridge.

The pool is salt water and the temperature of the air and water is the same, 29c or about 88 f. Some broken clouds and the seas are really flat.

We ate in the dinning room and it was Italian night. I am trying to cut back because I think I gained a few pounds, normally I would say that the salt air shank my cloths, but i've been on too many cruises to believe that tale.

We have to get up early tomorrow so we played a few hands of bridge and then called it a night.

We have been on this ship before. With only about 300 cabins it is quite intimate. The trade off is that you don't have all of the amenities of a bigger ship. The fitness center is a little small and if you are early on the track (13 times around is a mile) it looks a little like the 405 at rush hour. The equipment is ok, with treadmills etc but again there is a wait if you want to get your workout out of the way early.


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Hal