Finsatsea: March 6 - King Neptune pays a visit

Today was our second of several sea days as we approach and then sail up the Amazon. This afternoon we were privileged to have King Neptune, his queen and his court, including several mermaids, visit us. He came aboard to make sure there are no Pollywogs on the ship when we actually cross the Equator later this afternoon. The passengers and crew who hadn’t ever sailed across were subject to trial for their misdeeds and then ordered to kiss a fish, be slimed and then jump in the pool. Once they’ve completed that they are Shellbacks, eligible to cross the Equator.

That's King Neptune on the right with his beautiful bride

Some of the members of the court

One of the lovely mermaids who held the fish to be kissed

The ceremony is great fun and included a pretty large contingent of people on the ship. The rest of us who have already sailed across the Equator sat like a mob in the French Revolution declaring all of them guilty of their various crimes and then yelling for their punishment. I think it’s one of those rites of passage which you have to physically experience because it’s difficult to describe in words the fun we had.

The pirate queen leading the Pollywogs to their trial and fate

This fellow got the worst of the slime treatment

Aside from that on these lazy sea days we’re back to the pattern established before, namely eat, go to a lecture or two. Eat, play trivia… You know the drill by now. We did experience an unusual occurrence today. Our team tied for first place in trivia! First time that’s happened.

This evening there was another party for Seabourn Club members, people who have sailed on Seabourn before. Ninety percent of the passengers have. Collectively, we have 130 years’ worth of cruising days among us! We have a couple of ladies on the ship who each have more than 1200 days.

After the party I dined at a table hosted by the new Guest Services Manager, Diana from Romania. She joined the ship in Buenos Aires and is on board along with her husband who is the restaurant Maître D’. That’s something Seabourn does which I think is quite nice. They hire and permit couples to work on ships and even adjust their contracts accordingly. Several staff members with whom I’ve dined have been on with their spouses and they’ve told me that some cruise lines won’t allow that. I would think it makes for happier staff.

The pianist Rustem Hayroudinoff played again for our after-dinner show. He is absolutely wonderful. I had dinner with him last night and he was a very interesting dinner companion. He’s Russian born but has lived in London for more than 30 years and teaches at the Royal Academy of Music. He had some very interesting insights into the war in Ukraine and the Russian psyche. His mother and some other family members still live in Russia. One thing not about world affairs that he spoke about at dinner came to mind when he played tonight. He had said playing on a ship can be problematic because, as he put it, the piano is bad. While it’s a grand piano, there’s no one here to keep it in tune and it’s being played very frequently by all kinds of players doing all kinds of pounding on it. Plus it’s being moved around constantly for different kinds of shows. As he played tonight I wondered what it would be like to hear him play on a properly tuned and maintained piano in a venue with the right acoustics. Even without those he sounded great.

Tomorrow we’ll start our journey up the Amazon. We’ve been asked to conserve water because the ship can’t take on any water while there and we’ve been asked to keep lights on our verandas to a minimum so that we don’t attract too many insects who might enter our cabins when we open the doors. I start my malaria pill cycle tomorrow morning to hopefully prevent contracting it. Ta-ta for now.