Day 29 - Swimming the Equator

 

Behind the scenes: I write these blogs in MS Word, then copy paste into the blogger website. I’ve broken the word documents up into 1-week segments, starting on the 1^st, 8^th, etc, day of the cruise. This is the first day of the last document of the trip. We are sad.

We crossed back over the equator today at around 7, but Captain had said it would be at 4:30 am so we forgot to notice. Other than that the day started out well, with the usual full breakfast and Tai Chi, and then the coffee chat today in the World Stage due to our star chatter, staff captain Rakesh. He is the second in command to the Captain, and is responsible for the security, medical, and deck departments. He’s been with Holland almost 18 years and is a chat veteran, relaxed and funny on stage. Oddly, the one question nobody asked is if/when he might become Captain. He’s on the same 10 week rotation as the Captain – they’re on and off as a team.  Although he is from India, he is married to a Latvian and they live in Latvia with their 4 children, ages 11, 9, 7, and 4. He says being on the ship is his vacation.

Next up, line dancing with Jorge, fun as always. Then time off until lunch, a good time to sit in the explorer lounge and blog with the ocean view. We ate at a two-top in the dining room and had plenty of time to get to Ceptembre’s talk on Pirates. Once again she imparted a good amount of information in an interesting way, including the tidbit that Blackbeard the Pirate would put slow burning fuses in his hair and hat when he was attacking to make himself look more fierce. I think it would work!

Then we were off in different directions. Dave went off to the Premium wine tasting which was arranged  a long time ago, and I headed to the Seaview pool for the "swim the equator" equator crossing party for passengers. It was very crowded – Dario (dressed as King Neptune in a robe and very long wig) kept commenting that he hadn’t expected so many people, but he should know by now that we’re an enthusiastic bunch! He also couldn’t see because the hair of the wig was in his face. Tai Chi Dennis was there so we stuck together. We all got in a big line, then were processed individually. First you got on the deck of the pool and had ice water dumped on your head by Dario (a bucketful!), then you put your hands in more ice water while Clare the assistant cruise director counted to 5, then Mariel dumped another bucketful of ice water on your head and then you swam across the pool. Apparently you’re also supposed to kiss a fish, but they’re combining the fish-kissing with the crew equator ceremony tomorrow. The we all recited a pledge with Dario about being good equator crossers, including the part where he said “I hereby proclaim…” and we all said “I hereby proclaim” but that was his part. It took two tries to get everybody not to repeat it. It was a raucous good time with music and dancing. 

Since I’d already been in the pool I went over to the midships pool (better sloshing & less crowded) and sloshed about for a bit, then showered and went to the gym for Pilates. By the time I got back Dave was back from his wine tasting, which had been fun and full of Jacques telling a lot of stories and forgetting to talk about the wine. A standout was an Amarone della Valpolicella.

Then it was dinner time. Mikey and Linda were having dinner in the Pinnacle, and Dennis and Louise were there already so I thought it would be fun to sit on either side of them. Then it turned out that Louise had invited Marcel, the piano bar guy, to eat with us, and he ended up sitting next to me and Ilene next to Dave. Ilene and Dave had a nice chat, but Louise had a lot to discuss with Marcel, so Dennis and I ended up trying to make conversation over their chat. It was awkward, and our food took forever to arrive, but it was tasty, especially the salted caramel chocolate cake.

Then off to the show, Tricia Kelly, a singer/vocal impressionist and all-around good time. And then off to the Legendary Lido fair, where we played a few games and ate some popcorn and didn’t win any prizes, which is just as well because we really don’t need a Holland America throw blanket. Many people won miniature Lewie the Lions, though, and even though they’re for sale in the shops and we don’t need or even really want one I think everyone in the crowd was unreasonably disappointed not to be taking one home.

Then that was enough! I got us some tea from the Lido while Dave took care of filling our waterbottles from the ice bucket, and then it was time for some relaxing.

This picture is of the giant Lewie, here sitting in the Crow's Nest with today's riddle.